SEDE BOQER, ISRAEL, June 29, 2009 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's (BGU) Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) has won the CleanTech 2009 Excellence Award in the category of Outstanding Academic Institution in the Field of Environmental Studies.
CleanTech 2009 is a premier environment event in Israel, featuring professional conferences, seminars and symposia, as well as exhibitions where companies, researchers and professionals demonstrate new technologies and research developments.
The goal of the BIDR, located at BGU's Sede Boqer campus, is to carry out research on the desert environment required for promoting sustainable uses of the Negev Desert and other drylands worldwide. Deserts and other drylands constitute more than 40 percent of the global land area. Environmental changes such as global warming and further desertification of drylands threaten more than one million people in some 100 countries. Due in part to technology developed at BGU, Israel is the only country in which the desert is receding.
Nearly 300 scientists, researchers, staff and students carry out a wide range of environmental projects at laboratories, classes and other facilities at the Blaustein Institutes, as well as at research stations and field research sites throughout the Negev Desert and globally.
The CleanTech Award will be presented in Tel Aviv on June 30th at CleanTech 2009 – the 13th Annual International Summit and Exhibition for Environmental Quality, Renewable Energy, Infrastructures and Water Technologies. The event will take place at the Israel Trade Fairs and Conventions Center in Tel Aviv.
About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and American Associates
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a world-renowned institute of research and higher learning with 19,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat in Israel's southern desert. It is a university with a conscience, where the highest academic standards are integrated with community involvement, committed to sustainable development of the Negev. Founded in 1972, American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev plays a vital role in helping the University fulfill its unique responsibility to develop the Negev, reach out to its local community and its Arab neighbors, and share its expertise with the world. For more information, please visit www.aabgu.org.