Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is the largest university in Israel. It is a major center for teaching and research, and comprises nine faculties, 106 departments, and 90 research institutes. Tel Aviv University offers an extensive range of study programs in the arts and sciences, within its Faculties of Engineering, Exact Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Arts, and Management.

The Department of Zoology is the largest academic center for zoological research in Israel and its members have played key roles in establishing the various nature conservation institutions and organizations in the country. The Department of Zoology comprises 22 faculty members, 19 retired professors, 7 new immigrant scientists in various absorption schemes, post-doctoral fellows and over 80 graduate students (M.Sc. and Ph.D.). The research in the department integrates studies of animal biology and ecology. It covers a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines, mostly related to the whole organism, including ecology, evolution, behavior, biodiversity, phylogeny, physiology, conservation biology and mathematical biology. The research engages with terrestrial, avian, marine (Mediterranean and Red Sea) and freshwater systems in a large variety of taxonomic groups. It utilizes diverse state-of-the-art investigative and experimental techniques, both in the field and in the laboratory.

The Department also encompasses the Zoological Collections, which represent the most comprehensive record of the biodiversity of our region and constitute the largest section of the National Collections of Natural History at Tel-Aviv University.

Key Personnel

Dr. Menachem Goren is a Principal Research Associate at the Department of Zoology and leads, for many years, the Ichthyologicl Laboratory. Co-Chair the committee for Fauna and Flora of Israel the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and chief editor of the Electronic Journal of Ichthyology, The bulletin of the European Ichthyological Society. Served for 11 years as Vice President of Societas Europaea Ichthyologrum (European Ichthyological Society); was member of the executive committee of the IUBS (International Union of Biological Sciences); Scientific co-convenor of DIVERSITAS (An international progremme of Biodiversity Science) STAR element 9 on “Inventory and Monitoring of Inland Water Biodiversity” and was member of the executive committees of the Ecological Society of Israel, Zoological Society  of Israel and the Israeli Association of  Aquatic Studies.

Dr. Goren supervised about 40 Ph.D. and M. Sc. Students and published three books and over 100 articles in the peer reviewed literature.