MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund

The 2026 applications cycle is now open.

Apply by December 16, 2025.

Since 2019, the MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund for Faculty Collaboration, supported a total of 37 collaborations between MIT and Israeli Universities.

2025 Laureates
Research Collaborations

Detecting organophosphate pesticides for phytopreservation

  • Ariel Furst

    Department of Chemical Engineering MIT
  • Adi Avni

    School of Plant Sciences and Food Security Tel Aviv University

Engineering topological superconductivity in Van Der Waals heterostructures

  • Long Ju

    Department of Physics MIT
  • Eli Zeldov

    Department of Condensed Matter Physics Weizmann Institute of Science

Modeling blood clot fracture: Toward enhanced patient safety and simulant development

  • Tal Cohen

    Civil and Environmental Engineering MIT
  • Suhib Abu-Qbeitah

    School of Mechanical Engineering Tel Aviv University

Molecular polaritonics: Collective coherence and enhanced energy transport

MRI biometrics for fetal assessment

  • Polina Golland

    Electrical Engineering and Computer Science MIT
  • Leo Joskowicz

    School of Computer Science and Engineering The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Preparing for coordinated LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA and ULTRASAT observations

Using the AI Feynman algorithm to develop optimal air-sea flux equation

Bridging AI and Language Processing in the Brain

  • Roger Levy

    Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MIT
  • Yevgeni Berzak

    Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Convertible Debt Financing in Competitive Product Markets: The Case of Israel

Deciphering the mRNA Design Principles and Evolutionary Origins of Bacteroidetes, The Predominant Human Gut Bacteria Phylum

  • Christopher Voigt

    Department of Biological Engineering MIT
  • Yitzhak Pilpel

    Department of Molecular Genetics Weizmann Institute of Science

Emergent Quantum Phenomena in Crystalline Multilayer Graphene

  • Liang Fu

    Department of Physics MIT
  • Erez Berg

    Department of Condensed Matter Physics Weizmann Institute of Science

Fault-Tolerant Quantum Information Processing with Photons and Neutral Atoms

Global Urban Tree Ecophysiology Network

  • David Des Marais

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering MIT
  • Yotam Zait

    Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Novel Fiber-Based Electromagnetic Calorimetry

  • Or Hen

    Department of Physics MIT
  • Igor Korover

    Department of Physics Tel Aviv University

Analyzing the Resilience of the Food System in Israel

Learning-augmented Algorithms for Motif-counting

MicroISRAEL-2050: Multi-Layer Explorations of Israel’s Urban Microclimates

  • Kent Larson

    School of Architecture and Planning MIT
  • Jonathan Natanian

    Architecture and Town Planning Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Semantic Imaging: Merging Computational Imaging and Neural Fields to Advance 3D Scene Understanding

  • Ramesh Rasker

    School of Architecture and Planning MIT
  • Or Litany

    Faculty of Computer Science Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Additive Manufacturing of Mesoporous Hierarchical Materials for Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Solidarity in Fractured Times: Theory, Empirics, and Law

How abstract is phonology

Israel’s community-based healthcare, urbanization and environment as a basis for developing indicators for pandemic resiliency and planning healthy cities

Non-invasive Acoustic Hyperthermia and Local Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Brain Tumors

  • Natalie Artzi

    Institute for Medical Engineering and Science MIT
  • Haim Azhari

    Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Time Reversal of Nonlinear Hamiltonians for Quantum Enhanced Metrology

Vibrational engineering of ferroic order in van der Waals materials

Nanoengineered Silk Bioelectronics

Launching the Technion Center for Computational Intelligence in Medicine

  • Leo Anthony Celi

    Department of Physics Department of Physics
  • Joachim Behar

    Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Extreme Black Hole Accretion

Fundamentals and Applications of Highly-Polarizable Semiconductors

Digital Glass, Traditional Materials and Architectural Memory

  • Caitlin Mueller

    Department of Architecture MIT
  • Eran Ehrlich

    Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design & Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design &

Boosting Vision on the Go—Perceptual Learning Through Visuo-Motor Engagement

  • Pawan Sinha

    Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MIT
  • Roy Mukamel

    Faculty of Social Sciences Tel Aviv University

A Bone Microstructure Approach to Studying Animal Domestication in the Levant

Artificial Proteins for Energy Transport Devices

Elucidating the Neural Mechanisms of Expectancy-Based Effects in Psychotherapy

The Quest for Dark Matter Interactions

Transient Strongly Nonlinear Dynamics: Opportunities and Challenges

Ultrasound-Induced Immunotherapeutic Nanomedicine Delivery to Brain Tumours Under MRI Guidance

  • Natalie Artzi

    Institute for Medical Engineering and Science MIT
  • Haim Azhari

    Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Applying to the MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund

The MIT Center for International Studies has opened the Global Seed Funds (GSF) 2025-26 cycle. Submit your collaborative project by December 16th, 2025.

The GSF grant program promotes and supports early-stage collaborations between MIT faculty members and researchers and their counterparts around the globe. Many of the joint projects funded lead to publications, additional grant awards, and the development of valuable long-term relationships between international researchers and MIT faculty and students.

GSF grants enable participating teams to spend time together, either at MIT or abroad, with the aim of developing and launching joint projects. MIT faculty are encouraged to include MIT undergraduate and graduate students in their projects as participating members of the collaborating team. Most funds provide a maximum of $30,000.

GSF is comprised of a general fund and over twenty country, region or university-specific funds including the Zuckerman STEM Fund in Israel.

MIT- Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund: open to MIT faculty from all disciplines to collaborate with Israeli faculty at one of the following Institutions: Bar-Ilan University; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Tel Aviv University; University of Haifa; and the Weizmann Institute of Science. MIT PhD students must be included in the proposal.

“The MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund shows that the deep bond between MIT and Israeli peers is vital for the advancement of scientific research and the spread of new discoveries. Since its inception three years ago, the Fund allowed students and faculty from both countries to address important challenges, to inspire new solutions and to building meaningful relationships across our academic communities.”

– Eran Ben Joseph, Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Established in 2019, the MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund for Faculty Collaboration is a strategic partnership that continues to enhance collaboration and deepen relations between Israel and the US — the core vision of the program.

To date, MIT and Zuckerman STEM Fund program researchers have collaborated on 37 projects. See the candids from the launch.

August 14, 2023, Tel Aviv (l-r): Lina Deshilton, Executive Director, Zuckerman Israel Institute; Arsen Vasilyan, MIT graduate student; Prof. Eran Ben-Josef, MIT; Marie-Laure Charpignon, MIT graduate student