The Prize is awarded every year to winners in 5 fields: exact sciences, life sciences, social sciences, humanities and Judaism, and culture and art.

Each field has determined sub-fields, which change every year according to a fixed cycle.  The winners are awarded the prizes for academic achievements, which constitute a unique contribution to society.

The winners are chosen by the EMET Prize Award Committee headed by Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Mr. Gabriel Bach, including: Mr. Arie Dubson (Director General of the Foundation), Atty. Shlomit Barnea-Farago (Legal Adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office), Atty. Jaime Aron (Legal Adviser to the Foundation), Mrs. Shulamit Shamir, Mr. Victor Shem Tov, Prof. Chaim Cedar (The Hebrew University) and Prof. Michael Sela (The Weizman Institute).

The Prize Committee appoints Judging Committees in each field, comprised of three members each.  The members of the Judging Committee include well-known names in science and the academia, and are among the leading figures in their respective fields.  Some of them are highly respected award winners (Israel Prize, Wolf Foundation Award, EMET Prize).  The Judging Committees examine the nominations presented to the Foundation, and submit their recommendations to the Prize Committee.

The working methods of the Prize Committee, Judging Committees, means of soliciting nominations, requirements, examination of nominations, presenting recommendations and choosing the winners, are all laid out in the set of rules established by the Prime Minister’s Office and the AMN Foundation, and approved by the Prize Committee.

Each year, the prizes are awarded at a ceremony, under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The winners for 2003 are:

In the field of Exact Sciences – Physics:

Prof. Yuval Ne’eman for his pioneering and decisive contribution to deciphering the classification and structure of the fundamental constituents of subnuclear matter, through the application of the algebraic methods of the Theory of Groups, and for his tremendous scientific contribution to the development of subnuclear physics in Israel.

Since 1964, Prof. Ne’eman has conducted his research at Tel Aviv University, where he set up the School of Physics and Astronomy, initiated the Faculty of Engineering, the Institute for Strategic Studies, the Institute of Space Studies and the Wise Observatory near Mitzpe Ramon.  Prof Ne’man was also among the founders of the Institute for History, Philosophy of Science and Thought.  For four years he served as the President of Tel Aviv University, and since 1977, he has investigated the expansion of evolutionary thought beyond the bounds of biology.

His research and contribution to the study of Physics and Space earned him the Israel Prize, international awards and honorary membership in the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.  He has written hundreds of articles and published 25 books.

Prof. Igal Talmi for his pioneering and decisive contribution to deciphering the atomic nuclear structure and its components via algebraic and composite theory methods, and for his tremendous scientific contribution to the development of sub-atomic physics in Israel.

Since 1959, he conducted his research at the Weizman Institute of France and was one of the first researchers in its Nuclear Physics Department.  Over the years, he served as Department Head and as Dean of the Physics Department.

His scientific work and contributions in the field of physics earned him the Israel Prize and international awards and honorary membership in the Israeli National Academy of Sciences.

1.        In the field of Life Sciences – Agriculture:

Prof. Ilan Chet for being a pioneer in the development and progress of the biological control of plant diseases, using environmentally friendly micro-organisms, a field of extreme importance, whose goal is to protect plants and produce while preventing the contamination of the environment by toxic pesticides.

Between 1983 and 1986, Prof. Chet was the founder and first Director of the Otto Warberg Minerva Center for Biotechnology in Agriculture.  In the following three years, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University.  For ten years, he was the Vice-President and Chairman of the Research and Development Authority at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Since December 2001, he has served as President of the Weizman Institute of Science.

His research and contribution to the fields of agriculture and microbiology earned him the Israel Prize and other international awards.

Prof. Moshe Oren for his trailblazing research into the understanding of the molecular and biochemical foundations of cancer and his cutting-edge contribution to the discovery and characterization of the p53 protein and the gene associated with it.

Over the years, Prof. Oren was a researcher in the Chemical Immunology Department at the Weizman Institute of Science, a visiting Professor at the Biochemistry Department of Stanford University, the Director of the Forchheimer Center for Molecular Genetics, Chair of the Capital Council of Professors at the Weizman Institute, Deputy Chair of the Institute’s Scientific Council and Dean of its Faculty of Biology.

His research has earned him international awards.

Prof. Varda Rotter for her trailblazing research into the understanding of the molecular and biochemical foundations of cancer and her cutting-edge contribution to the discovery and characterization of the p53 protein and the gene associated with it.

Prof. Rotter is a member of many professional associations, including the Israel Immunological Society, and international microbiology and cancer research organizations.  In Israel, she is a member of the Executive Board of the Israel Cancer Society.  She is also a member of the scientific editorial staff of many professional periodicals and publications in Israel and around the world.

Her research has earned her much recognition and many awards for her professional and scientific achievements and her accomplishments as a female researcher.

2.        In the field of Social Sciences – Law

Prof. Ruth Gavison for being one of Israel’s pre-eminent thinkers in the field of public law in Israel and in legal philosophy, for her academic and public activities in promoting democracy, championing human rights and for her great contribution to the prestige of the Rule of Law in Israel.

For many years Prof. Gavison chaired the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and served as the Association’s president for three years.  She also chaired the academic committee of the Minerva Center for Human Rights.  Today, she is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, Israel Association for Parliamentarism, Mishkanot Sha’ananim’s Academic Committee and the presidium of the Yahad Council and the Committee on the Appointment of the Attorney General.  In the past, she served as a senior colleague of the Israel Democracy Institute, as a member of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Research, and has participated on various public committees, including the Kahan Commission on Privacy, the Klugman Committee on the Privacy of Information in Governmental Databanks, the Shamgar Committee on the Appointment of the Attorney General, the Zadok Committee for Press Laws and the Committee for Secular-Religious Relations in Israel.

3.        In the field of Humanities – Philosophy and History

Prof. Michael Confino for his contribution to the research of Russian history, which has earned him worldwide renown as an eminent historian, and for his decisive contribution to both empirical research and to a broad, in-depth and original concept of historical development and the manner in which historians relate to it.

During his many years of research, Prof. Confino served as Visiting Professor at Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, Duke, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and was a Fellow at major research centers in Europe and the United States.  He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and an Israel Prize Laureate for History.

4.        In the field of Humanities – Philosophy and History

Prof. Moshe Jammer for being one of the great researchers of the Philosophy of Modern Physics for nearly 50 years, and for his new, original and fascinating research into the cornerstone of the exact sciences.

Prof. Jammer established the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan Univeristy.  Later, he was appointed Rector and President of the University.

He was among the founders of the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science at Tel Aviv University, and served as a member of the National Committee for Higher Education, the Instruction Committee of the Council for Atomic Energy, and was President of the Association for the Advancement of Science in Israel.  Over the years, he served as Visiting Professor at various universities worldwide and lectured at many scientific conferences.

Prof. Jammer is a member of the National and International Academy of Sciences, and serves on the editorial boards of philosophical and physics periodicals.  For his research he has received many prizes, including the prize of the American Academy of Sciences and the Israel Prize.

5. In the fields of Culture and Arts – Classical Music and Dance

Prof. Noam Sheriff for being a multi-faceted musician; a composer, conductor, interpreter, lecturer and teacher who has left his personal and distinguished mark on his work.  His abundant talent and impressive imagination, as evinced in his work, have earned him renown in Israel and around the world, thereby bringing honor to the State of Israel.

He regularly conducts performances of his works and other works of the international repertoire in Israel and abroad.  Many of his students hold important positions as orchestra conductors throughout the world.

Between 1989 and 1995, Prof. Sheriff was the Music Director of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Letzion.  Before that, he administered various orchestras and established and held music festivals around the world.  He was the music adviser to the Israel Festival and presented music programs on radio and television.

Since 1990, he has been Professor of Conducting and Composition at Tel Aviv University’s Music Academy.  In 2002, he was appointed Music Director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

Rina Schenfeld, for being a dancer and a choreographer, a teacher, innovator and an inquisitive researcher who has contributed greatly to Israeli dance.  Her unique character as a dancer has created a new standard for excellence, diligence and innovation.  Rina Schenfeld helped found the Batsheva Dance Company and was its choreographer and primary dancer.  In the framework of the Company, she appeared in leading roles in the works of some of the world’s great choreographers.

In 1979, she founded the Rina Schenfeld Dance Theater, for which she created some 60 dances for both solo and troupe performances, some of which were performed on the world’s most important stages.  In recent years, her work aroused great interest in the Far East, and she was invited for tours and international festivals in Japan, India and South Korea.  Her name precedes her as one of the most original and important representatives of Israeli dance in the world.

Her artistic work in Israel and abroad earned her prestigious awards.

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