Itamar Harel

Itamar Harel is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Genetics, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his bachelor in Life Science at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 2005, and his PhD in Developmental Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science with Prof. Eldad Tzahor in 2012. During his PhD Itamar used the mouse and chicken model systems and have identified a novel regulatory network underlying cardiac and head muscle development, regeneration, and disease. For his postdoctoral training, Itamar switched fields (and model systems) and studied the Biology of Aging with Prof. Anne Brunet at Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, he developed a platform for rapid exploration of aging and diseases in a naturally short-lived vertebrate, the African turquoise killifish.

Itamar was supported by many prestigious fellowships, including the Damon Runyon, the Human Frontier Science Foundation, and the Rothschild fellowships. Itamar is highly involved in science education, via academic and popular lectures, by writing popular science, as well as leading training courses and scientific conferences. These activities have been recognized by several organizations, including the Ilan Ramon Award for Outstanding Academic Achievements (2010), the Israeli-American Council Award of Excellence and Community Leadership (2015), and elected to the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program (2018).