Prestigious Sieratzki Awards for Advances in Neuroscience Announces 2024 Laureates

Five scientists from Tel Aviv University, The Hebrew University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science will be honored for their groundbreaking contributions to neuroscience.

Arseny Finkelstein, PhD - Tel Aviv University

Dr. Finkelstein is recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in the neural codes underlying navigation in bats, including the identification of the first neural analogue of a 3D compass in the mammalian brain and neurons encoding navigational goals. By combining large-scale optical imaging with brain-machine interfaces, Dr. Finkelstein has also explored memory-guided decision-making, revealing how short-term memory balances flexibility in the face of distractions.

This work illuminates how neural interactions drive cognition and how brain networks adapt during learning. His recent research focuses on network reorganization during motor learning and the mechanisms that enable flexible, high-dimensional communication across brain regions.

Yoav Livneh, PhD - Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Livneh is recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in cortical computations within the insular cortex, a central node in the brain-body loop. His research employs cutting-edge techniques, including cellular and subcellular two-photon imaging, holography, circuit mapping and manipulation, endocrinological measurements, and computational approaches.

Dr. Livney investigates how different physiological needs (such as hunger and thirst) are represented, how internal sensations are organized, how these representations are used to make predictions that guide behavioral choices, and the role of the interoceptive cortex in these processes. By addressing these questions, his work aims to uncover how the brain-body loop maintains physical and emotional health.

Tal Laviv, PhD - Tel Aviv University

Dr. Laviv is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in engineering biosensors, including sensitive molecular rulers that measure protein signaling activity in the brain during experience-dependent plasticity and learning. These innovative tools provide crucial insights into how, where, and when critical genes and proteins support neuronal development and function.

Using this approach, Dr. Laviv has unraveled the mechanisms underlying various neurological diseases, such as autism, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegeneration. Recently, his lab engineered a new biosensor capable of measuring the activity of PTEN - a master regulator of neuronal development - within the intact brain.

David Omer, PhD - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dr. Omer is recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in neural circuits underlying social behaviors. His research revealed social-spatial and social-temporal representations of others in the mammalian hippocampus, challenging a five-decade-old view that the hippocampus is primarily involved in self-representations, and highlighting its fundamental role in social behaviors.

Recently, employing marmosets as an animal model, he became the first to demonstrate vocal labeling of others by nonhuman primates - an innovative finding that advances our understanding of primate communication and its connections to human language. Dr. Omer’s current work explores the evolution of vocal communication and language, providing critical insights into the neural basis of social interaction.

Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, PhD - Tel Aviv University

Dr. Ben-Ami Bartal is renowned for her groundbreaking discoveries on the neurobiological basis of empathy and prosocial behavior. She pioneered the study of helping behavior in rodents by developing an innovative rat model. Her work demonstrated that rats are motivated by the distress of a trapped conspecific to open a trap and release it.

Her experimental and intellectual contributions have helped establish the view that empathic arousal is shared across social species and have spurred investigations into the neural circuits underlying prosocial responses to conspecific distress. Using genetic and optical methods, she uncovered the brain-wide prosocial behavior network, showing that the circuits involved in rat helping behavior are highly homologous to the human neural empathy network.

The Sieratzki Awards recognize outstanding, innovative neuroscientists at the early stages of their careers for both their extraordinary achievements and their promise for future discoveries.

The 2024 Sieratzki Awards for Advances in Neuroscience will be conferred at a ceremony held at the ISFN meeting, in Dan hotel at Eilat, on January 14th, 2025.

The 2024 Laureates join Israeli neuroscientists who have been honored by the Sieratzki Awards since they were launched in 2009.

About the Sieratzki Institute for Advances in Neuroscience

The Sieratzki Institute for Advances in Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University supports some of the most promising young neuroscientists and future leaders by providing the funding and resources needed to tackle neuroscience's greatest challenges.

Established by Dr. Jechil (Harry) Sieratzki in memory of Heinrich (Yehezkel) and Barbara (Batya) Sieratzki, the Institute fosters innovation, discovery, and creativity to advance neuroscience for the benefit of society. The Institute is led by Prof. Inna Slutsky.

Learn more at https://en-med.tau.ac.il/sian.