Meet the team

Principle investigator

Prof. Nadav Shashar – nadavsh@bgu.ac.il 

Independent researcher

Dr. Jenny Tynyakov Shashar  – tynyakov@post.bgu.ac.il

Lab volunteer

Eng. Shlomo Taliansky –  ruso1966@gmail.com

PhD students

Asa Oren – asaoren@gmail.com
2019 – 

About Asa’s work: Many aquatic environments are under natural and anthropological influences, which cause damage to the various populations living in those environments such as fish, corals, echinoderm and invertebrates. The goal of my research is to use advanced technologies like 3D printing to shape the environment to support conservation and restoration of the damaged populations. 3D printing technology enable us to create artificial structures from various materials in shapes and colors suited to our purpose. The combination of 3D printing with advanced design tools we can create structure identical to natural structures or to create unnatural structures designed for our goals.

Dor Shefy – dorshefy@gmail.com
Co – supervised by Prof. Buki Rinkevich (IOLR)
2017 –

About Dor’s work: In the face of Global change, coral reef world-wide undergo sever degradation. It is projected that by next few decades more than 50% of the reef will disappear. While conservation acts solely are not enough, and the rate of change is too fast for the coral to adapt, it is necessary to think of a novel way. In the active reef restoration tenet (growing coral in nurseries and then transplant them to a degraded reef), transplanted population may face the same problems as a new population: relatively low population and genotypic size, low genetic variation and maladaptation to the change in environmental conditions. In my research I focus on coral reproduction, coral chimerism (the presence of 2 or more genotypes in a colony) and other coral interaction as restoration tool.

Tan Morgan – morgant@post.bgu.ac.il
“Dolphin vocalization”
Co – supervised by Dr.  Arik Kershenbaum (University of Cambridge)
2015  – 

MSc students

Re’em Neri – reemneri@gmail.com
“Marine larval settlement in relation to surface roughness and flow structures”
2019 –

Lab alumni

Post docs
Dr. Gil Koplovitz
2015 – 2016
Dr. Amit Lerner
2011 – 2013
Dr. Anne Sophie Darmaillacq
2005 – 2007

PhD students

Dr. Noam Josef
“Camouflage in cephalopods”
2011 – 2015
Dr. Omer Polak
“Artificial reefs as a conservation tool”
2006 – 2012
Prof. Jonathan Belmaker
“Processes governing fish distribution on artificial and natural coral reefs”
2003 – 2008

MSc students

Asa Oren – asaoren@gmail.com
“Relationships of structure and community in coral reefs”
2016 – 2019
Noa Milstein
“ Succession and composition of the microbial community developing on artificial surfaces in the Gulf of Eilat, Red Sea”
2015 – 2018
Dor Shefy
“Reproduction and settlement in the coral Stylophora pistillata in the Gulf of Eilat, The Red Sea”
2015- 2017  
Meghan Rousseau
“Human interactions on artificial and natural coral reefs”
2014 –  2016
Gabriella Scata
“Three Dimensional spatial learning and space use by cuttlefish”
2013-2015
Sophi Donio
 “ Supportive experience with the aid of dolphins”
2010- 2012 
Dr. Noam Josef
“Cephalopods body patterns”
2009- 2011
Yaron Pitkovsky
“Factors determining the development of a coral reef community”
2008- 2012
Keren Levi
“Visual communication in butterfly fish”
2008- 2012
Zeev Shachar
“The effect of predation on Coral reefs’ fish diversity through direct predation and prey behavior alteration”
2004-2008
Noam Ben-Moshe
“Habitat selection, competition and coexistence of two coral-fish species”
2004-2007
Dr. Shai Sabbah
 “Transparency of planktonic organisms in the natural polarized light field”
2002-2005
Dana Sadowitch
“Modes of enhancing coral growth”
2003-2005
Shiri Manor
“Polarization sensitivity of marine planktonic animals”
2002-2004
Dr. Shai Einbinder
“Impact of artificial reefs on natural reefs”
2000-2003