Lab Members
Ram Fishman
Lab Director
Ram Fishman is a senior lecturer at the Department of Public Policy (Faculty of Social Sciences) in Tel Aviv University and the Director of NITSAN Lab. Ram holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia university an a M.Sc. in Physics from the Weitzmann Institute.
Current Students
Yalon Perlman
Master's student in Public Policy
Yalon is an Agtech project manager at Adama Ltd. Yalon's thesis is focused on methodologies for measuring the performance of improved agricultural technologies at the hands of smallholder farmers using field trials. It is based on several months of field work in India.
Michal Eliezer
Master's student in Public Policy
Michal is evaluating the causal impacts of a unique agricultural internship program in Israel on Nepali smallholder farmers using a natural experiment. Michal holds a B.A. in economics and sustainability from the IDC. She has years of experience in field work working with NGOs in Nepal, Tanzania and the Israeli Negev.
Tammy Erann Soussan
Master's student in public policy
Tammy is a capacity building and international training expert with 20 years’ experience of working for Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV), designing and implementing courses for trainees from all over the world, in Israel and in Africa. Her thesis studies the long-term impacts of MASHAV's trainings.
Dan Oziel
Master's student in public policy
Dan's thesis examines the manner in which smallholder farmers in Nepal make use of solar powered irrigation pumps, considered a promising technology for low-carbon development. He has a B.A. psychology and international relations.
Daniel Katz
Master's student in public policy
Daniel is a plant protection manager at Eden farm - the agricultural R&D center of the Valley Of Spring. His research explores ways to implement novel, eco-friendly IPM (Integrated Pest Management) against major pests afflicting farmers in Israel, Jordan, and India. Daniel holds a M.Sc. in life sciences from Bar Ilan university.
Michale Goldberger
Master's student in Environmental Engineering
Michale is studying the role of climatic variability in driving farmer suicides in India. Michale is passionate about water technology and is currently studying for her Master's in Environmental Engineering. She previously worked in water filtration with SPOUTS of Water in Uganda.
Bar Weiss
Master's student in environmental studies
Bar's research is focused on understanding farmers' interest in agro-voltaic technology (photovoltaics in agricultural farms) and designing policies for their diffusion that can balance energy and food security considerations.
Tzachi Rotbain
Lautman program Master's student in international development
Tzachi is a student in the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding students. He is interested in how information technology and data science can be used to make an impact for sustainable development. He is currently working on a geo-statistical model to estimate the reliability of data gathered from smallholder farms.
Former Students
Maya Oren
M.A. in public policy
Maya wrote her thesis about the impacts of a unique agricultural internship program in Israel in which thousands of farmers from low-income farmers participate every year. Her evaluation was based on surveys of Nepali participants conducted after their return home.
Dr. Shira Bukchin
Shira is faculty member at the department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Shira's master thesis conducted a projection of the future global predominance of smallholder farmers in land management, food production and climate change burden. She then went on to complete a Ph.D. in public policy.
Claire Palandri
Visiting doctoral student
Claire was a visiting doctoral Ph.D. student from the Sustainable Development program at Columbia University (School of International and Public Affairs). During the year she spent at TAU, she studied the dairy industry and the impacts of climate change on milk productivity using big data.