Curriculum vitae

Education

04/2015-09/2019 Ph.D. student, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.  Advisors: Dr. Assaf Shwartz and Prof. Yohay Carmel. Dissertation: Modeling alternatives for planning and management of ecological corridors in agricultural environments.

10/2010-01/2013 M.Sc. student, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Advisors: Prof. Ronen Kadmon and Dr. Zalmen Henkin. Title of thesis: Effects of cattle grazing on herbaceous species diversity in a dry-Mediterranean rangeland.

10/2007-10/2010 B.Sc. student, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Professional Experience

9/2022- Resarcher at the department of Natural Resources in Volcani center, ARO

11/2020-8/2022 Post-doctoral researcher, Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation group, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands.  Host: Prof. David Kleijn. Projects: SHOWCASing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and Ecosystem services to help farmers capitalising on native biodiversity (https://showcase-project.eu/), Open library of pollinator Biodiversity and ecosystem Services scenarios (https://www.beeproject.science/observ.html). 

10/2019-10/2020 Post-doctoral position, Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Center) and The Department of Entomology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Host: Dr. Asaf Sadeh and Prof. Moshe Coll. Project: The relationship between induced phytochemical diversity, arthropod herbivores and natural enemies in organic and conventional vegetable crops.

Prizes & Awards

2020 Shortlisted for Shouthwood prize for best paper by an early career researcher. Journal of Applied Ecology special virtual issue covering my work: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2664.Southwood_Prize_2020 

2020 BARD (US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund) Vaadia Postdoctoral Fellowship (awarded and declined due to competing offer at Wageningen University & Research).

2019 Workshop for young women leaders in science with HFP-Consulting, hosted by the Technion (given to selected 16 female PhD candidates)

Reviews

I reviewed papers for leading journal in my field, among them Journal of Applied Ecology, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Ecological Indicators. See my Publons account for a full list.

Outreach

2020 Lecturing in youth activities ("Noar Shocher Mada").

2018 Agricultural Extension Service (Ministry of Agriculture) winter seminar for farmers, January 2018, Kefar-Blum, Israel. Seminar title: “Costs and benefits of implementing field-margins practice in Emek-Harod”.

2016-2019 Member in the Environmental farming experts’ forum (Deshe institute and The Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences).

2017 Contributed popular science article http://www.kalanit.org.il/grazing-herbs/  (Hebrew)

Students

PhD degree students

2027 (exp.) Shahar Oz, “Optimizing fragmented landscapes for biodiversity and pest control”, co-supervisor: Itamar Giladi.

Master’s degree students

2021 Kiki de Waart, “Effect of structural and floral resources on pollinators in agri-environmental interventions”, co-supervisor: Thijs Fijen.

2021 Zhang Rongqian, “Effects of biodiversity interventions on pest control services”, co-supervisor: David Kleijn.

2023 Tom Moades, “Flowering cover crops in almond orchards – resources complementarity or competition? ”, co-supervisor: Arnon Dag.

2024 Maayan Appel, “The effect of water availability on the phenology and diversity of experimental plant communities”, co-supervisor: Niv DeMalach.

2025 Noel Kokwon, “Effects of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions”, co-supervisor: Niv DeMalach.

2025 (exp.) Daniel Idan, “Can low-density tree planting increase biodiversity?”, co-supervisor: Niv DeMalach.

2025 (exp.) Atay Mor, “Effects of low-density tree planting on arthropod diversity”, co-supervisor: Niv DeMalach.

2026 (exp.) Miriam Halevi, “Flowering cover crops to support pollination in almond orchards”, co-supervisor: Arnon Dag.

2026 (exp.) Rachel Eckstein, “Developing citizen science indicators in regenerative agriculture for monitoring weed and pest management”, co-supervisor: Maor Matzrafi.

Bachelor degree students

2022 Inge Bach, “The effect of Semi-natural habitats (SNH) on the body size of hoverflies in agricultural lands”, co-supervisor: Thijs Fijen.

Teaching

2016-2018 Teaching assistant “GIS for planners” for B.Sc. and M.Sc., Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Mean evaluation 4.5/5 over three years.

2015 Teaching assistant “Ecology for engineers” for B.Sc. students, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.