The John Bahcall Astrophysics Lecture, Fellowship, and Prize




John N. Bahcall (1934-2005), one of the leading astrophysicists of the 20th century, was also a mentor and true friend of Israeli science and scientists. The John Bahcall Astrophysics Lecture is presented annually at Tel-Aviv University by a distinguished astrophysicist. On this occasion, we also award the John Bahcall Physics Undergraduate Fellowship and the John Bahcall Astrophysics Graduate Student Prize.
The Undergraduate Fellowship is awarded to an excelling 2nd-year TAU Physics student, based on her/his grades in their first year. The fellowship is awarded again to the same student on the following year (their 3rd year of studies) if he/she continues to perform well.
The Graduate Student Prize is awarded once every two years to a TAU Astrophysics Ph.D. student who has excelled in her/his thesis research. The Fellowship and the Prize are made possible through generous donations by Prof. Neta Bahcall and family. The John Bahcall Astrophysics Lecture is under the aegis of the Emilio Segre Distinguished Lectures in Physics of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation. Event organizer: Dan Maoz


John Bahcall Astrophysics Lecturers

2006-2007: Prof. Avi Loeb
2007-2008: Prof. David Spergel
2008-2009: Prof. Shri Kulkarni
2009-2010: Prof. Jerry Ostriker
2010-2011: Prof. Hans-Walter Rix
2011-2012: Prof. Chris McKee
2012-2013: Prof. Andy Gould
2013-2014: Prof. Frank Shu
2014-2015: Prof. Tim de Zeeuw
2015-2016: Prof. Brice Menard
2016-2017: Prof. David Hogg
2017-2018: Prof. Puragra Guhathakurta
2018-2019: Prof. David Weinberg
2020-2021: Prof. Juna Kollmeier
2021-2022: Prof. Piero Madau
2022-2023: Prof. Matias Zaldarriaga


John Bahcall Astrophysics Graduate Student Prize Recipients

2006-2007: Orly Gnat
2008-2009: Smadar Naoz
2010-2011: Adi Zitrin
2012-2014: Simchon Faigler
2015-2016: Yakov Faerman
2017-2018: Na'ama Hallakoun
2019-2020: Dalya Baron
2022-2023: Taya Govreen-Segal


John Bahcall Physics Undergraduate Fellowship recipients

2006-2008: Ruslan Berdichevsky
2008-2009: Elad Shaked
2009-2011: Eran Sagi
2011-2013: Erez Timnat
2013-2015: Ofer Doron
2015-2017: Guy Rom
2017-2019: Navot Silberstein
2020-2022: Dor Harpaz
2022-2024: Tomer Gold