Board of Governors
As set out in the 1972 agreement between the United States and Israel that established the BSF, the Foundation is governed by a Board of Governors consisting of 10 members, five from each country, appointed by the respective governments. The Board is responsible for determining financial and policy issues of the Foundation. The Board meets twice a year, once in Jerusalem and once in Washington D.C. The chair and vice chair of the BSF alternate annually between the two countries.
The following are the Board of Governor Members for 2025-2026:
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BiographyProf. Ami Moyal, Israel
Chair of Planning and Budgeting Committee Council for Higher Education, IsraelProf. Ami Moyal serves as Chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel. He brings over three decades of experience spanning academia, high-tech industry, and public service — combining deep expertise in technology, education, and strategic leadership.
Prof. Moyal earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, specializing in speech signal processing. For 15 years, he worked in Israel’s high-tech sector in the field of speech recognition, where he held several senior management roles, including VP of Technology, VP of Business Development, and ultimately CEOIn 2008, he joined Afeka Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv, where he founded an applied research center for language processing and headed the Department of Electrical Engineering. In 2014, he was appointed President of Afeka, a position he held for over a decade. Under his leadership, the college underwent a comprehensive strategic transformation — introducing a skills-based educational model, doubling student enrollment, securing significant funding for a new campus, and establishing Afeka as a national leader in engineering education.
Beyond academia, Prof. Moyal has spent his career promoting educational accessibility and technological innovation. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Education Fund (ISEF), working to expand access to higher education and bridge social gaps, and later as Chairman of the Board of the Center for Educational Technology (CET), Israel’s largest organization for educational innovation.
Throughout his career, Prof. Moyal has championed the creation of a national continuum in science, technology, and engineering education — from schools to academia and industry — guided by the vision that higher education is a cornerstone of human capital development and a key driver of Israel’s social and economic resilience. -
BiographyDr. Iris Eisenberg, Israel
Director of Life Sciences Research, Israel Ministry of Innovation, Science and TechnologyDr. Iris Eisenberg received her PhD in Human Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2003. Her doctoral research led to the identification of the gene causing GNE myopathy. Following completion of her doctoral studies, Dr. Eisenberg undertook postdoctoral training at Harvard University and Children’s Hospital Boston, as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research associate.
During her postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Louis Kunkel, she conducted pioneering research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, contributing to early insights into the role of small non-coding RNAs in disease pathology with the objective of developing therapeutic approaches for the disease.
Dr. Eisenberg later served as a researcher at the Magda and Richard Hoffman Center for Human Placental Research at Hadassah Medical Center, Mount Scopus, where her work emphasized translational research in fertility, pregnancy complications, and placental dysfunction.
In September 2019, Dr. Eisenberg was appointed Scientific Director of Life Sciences Research at the Chief Scientist Unit of the Israel Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. In this role, she is responsible for shaping national research strategy, supporting cutting edge academic and applied research, and fostering international scientific collaborations.
Dr. Eisenberg serves on the boards of several leading European and international life science organizations, where she contributes to strategic planning, research policy, and the strengthening of cross border scientific cooperation.
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BiographyMs. Cathleen Campbell, U.S.A.
Chair of BoardCathy Campbell has four decades of experience in international science, technology and security programs, policies and management. In 2017-2018 she was a Visiting Scholar in the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy where she researched national approaches to science diplomacy among Arab countries. Prior to AAAS, she served for ten years as President and Chief Executive Office of CRDF Global, where she led science diplomacy initiatives and oversaw science cooperation with over forty countries. Previously, Cathy served as director of the Office of International Technology Policy and Programs, Department of Commerce from 1998-2002 and senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1995-1997. She was the U.S. State Department’s program officer for Soviet/Russia science and technology affairs from 1989-1994. Before joining the State Department, Cathy held research positions at the Library of Congress, Rand Corporation and Presearch, Incorporated.
Cathy has a Master’s degree from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and a B.S. from Georgetown University. She serves on the External Advisory Board, Pennsylvania State University’s School of International Affairs; and the Advisory Committee, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). She is a Fellow of the AAAS.
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BiographyProf. Brian Rosen, Israel
Chief Scientist for the Israeli Ministry of Energy and InfrastructuresProf. Brian Rosen currently serves as the Chief Scientist for the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructures. Prof. Rosen is a Full Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Tel Aviv University, and previously served as the Vice Dean for International Affairs in the Faculty of Engineering. Prof. Rosen is the head of the Energy Materials Laboratory which studies the effect of catalyst microstructure on their effectiveness in fuel cells as well as chemical reactors which produce and crack clean synthetic fuels. Prof. Rosen was named as a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellow in 2010. His work was the basis for a US-based startup company, Dioxide Materials which develops industrial CO2 electrolyzers. Additionally, he co-founded Israeli-based startup Fonto Power (acquired by SolarEdge Technologies in 2023) which developed behind-the-meter SOFC technologies. Professor Rosen is the co-founder and former CSO of the Israeli-based startup, PyroH2, which develops methane pyrolysis reactors utilizing multi-phase catalysts. Prof. Rosen was given the Young Innovator Award in Nanocatalysis Research by Springer in 2021, the Climate Solutions Breakthrough Research Prize by KKL-JNF Canada in 2023, and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Inventors as a Senior Member in 2025.
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BiographyMs. Aviagail Wenkart, Israel
Budget Division, Israel Ministry of FinanceAvigail Wenkart is currently the head of R&D and the Higher Education team at the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance. She was previously the Director of the Macro-Finance Team where she managed a team of two economists responsible for the Israel Ministry of Finance’s economic policy for financial markets. She was also Chair of the Government Price Control Committee where she managed the prices of products and services subject to the Israeli Price Control Law. Avigail earned her B.A. in Philosophy, Economics and Political Science (PEP Program) and her M.A in Public Policy, Honors Program, both from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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BiographyDr. Joshua Gordon, U.S.A
Chair of Department of Psychiatry, Columbia UniversityDr. Gordon is the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S). He also serves as Executive Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) and the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at New York-Presbyteratian Hospital-Columbia University Irving Medical Center(CUIMC).
Dr. Gordon was the Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health for eight years, the lead federal agency for research on mental illnesses, where he was at the forefront of mental health research policy.
Dr. Gordon received his MD/PhD degree at the University of California, San Francisco and completed his Psychiatry residency and research fellowship at Columbia University. He joined the Columbia faculty in 2004 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry where he conducted research, taught residents, and maintained a general psychiatry practice. In September of 2016, he became the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Gordon’s research focuses on the analysis of neural activity in mice carrying mutations of relevance to psychiatric disease. His lab studies genetic models of these diseases from an integrative neuroscience perspective, focused on understanding how a given disease mutation leads to a behavioral phenotype across multiple levels of analysis. To this end, he employs a range of systems neuroscience techniques, including in vivo anesthetized and awake behaving recordings and optogenetics, which is the use of light to control neural activity. His work has direct relevance to schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and depression.
Dr. Gordon’s work has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the The Brain and Behavior Research Foundation – NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Rising Star Award from the International Mental Health Research Organization, the A.E. Bennett Research Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the Daniel H. Efron Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
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BiographyProf. Peter Hotez, U.S.A.
Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Baylor College of MedicinePeter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is also University Professor at Baylor University, and Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
Dr. Hotez is an internationally-recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. As head of the Texas Children’s CVD, he leads the only product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, and Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS, diseases affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide. In 2006 at the Clinton Global Initiative he co-founded the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to provide access to essential medicines for hundreds of millions of people.
He obtained his undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics from Yale University in 1980 (phi beta kappa), followed by a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from Rockefeller University in 1986, and an M.D. from Weil Cornell Medical College in 1987. Dr. Hotez has authored more than 400 original papers and is the author of the acclaimed Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases (ASM Press) and the recently released Blue Marble Health: An Innovative Plan to Fight Diseases of the Poor amid Wealth (Johns Hopkins University Press).
Dr. Hotez served previously as President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and he is founding Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and in 2011 he was awarded the Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Health by the Pan American Health Organization of the WHO. In 2014-16 he served in the Obama Administration as US Envoy, focusing on vaccine diplomacy initiatives between the US Government and countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2018 he was appointed by the US State Department to serve on the Board of Governors for the US Israel Binational Science Foundation, and he received the Sackler Award in Sustained Leadership from ResearchAmerica!
In 2016, Prof. Hotez emerged as a major national thought leader on the Zika epidemic in the Western Hemisphere and globally. He was among the first to predict Zika’s emergence in the US and is called upon frequently to testify before US Congress, and served on infectious disease task forces for two consecutive Texas Governors. For these efforts in 2017 he was named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the 34 most influential people in health care.
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BiographyDr. Jennifer Slimowitz Pearl, U.S.A
Acting Office Head, NSF Office of International Science and EngineeringDr. Jennifer Slimowitz Pearl PhD. is the Acting Head of the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. In this capacity, she provides leadership and direction to team of more than 20 professionals who orchestrate NSF’s participation in global science and engineering research and diplomacy. This includes catalyzing international partnerships to advance research, creating opportunities for the development and implementation of NSF strategies for a globally engaged workforce, and ensuring NSF is effectively represented in high-impact policy and issue areas in the international science and engineering enterprise.
Pearl has rich prior experience in many areas of NSF in its Directorate for Engineering; Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Division of Mathematical Sciences; and most recently, front office of the NSF director. She has also served at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as director of the Science & Technology Policy Fellowships program and held positions at George Mason University; the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; and Rice University. She served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation and as an NSF/NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Pearl earned her doctorate in mathematics in the field of symplectic geometry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Duke University.
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BiographyProf. Alex Lubotzky, Israel
Professor of Mathematics at Weizmann Institute and Weil Professor of Mathematics at the Hebrew UniversityProf. Alex Lubotzky is a mathematician working mainly in group theory and its connections with number theory, geometry, combinatorics and computer science. He has
published over 160 papers, 1 textbook, 3 research books (two of which received the Ferran Sunyer I Balaguer Prize – an international prize for research books).He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2014), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005) and the Hungarian Academy of
Science (2022). He has received a number of awards: the Erdos Prize (1990), the Rothschild Prize (2002), the Israel Prize (2018) and an honorary degree from the
University of Chicago (2006). He has received ERC advanced grants three times (2009-2014, 2015-2020, 2021-2026).He served on various Israeli and international committees, was a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) 1996-1999, and the president of the Israeli Mathematical
Union (2019-2020).