Dean of the Faculty - Prof. Erez Etzion

We don't know what most of the universe is made of. Some of the big questions in mathematics are still open, and we don't know how far computers and artificial intelligence will go. We also don't know which scientific discoveries will change our lives next month, or twenty years from now. 

We have a lot of questions, and a rare group of curious people trying to answer them. 

Welcome to the Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University. 

The Faculty is home to the School of Mathematical Sciences, the School of Computer Science and AI, the School of Physics and Astronomy, the School of Chemistry and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. We are a community of leading researchers, talented and ambitious students, and a professional and dedicated administrative and technical staff. Without them, nothing here would work. 

Basic research is the core of what we do. It is driven by curiosity and by the wish to understand how the world works. Not every research project starts by asking what the answer is good for. Sometimes it starts simply with a good question. History shows that questions which seemed far from any practical use led to discoveries and technologies that changed the world. We want to expand what is known, and we are happy to see the knowledge created here contribute to technology, the economy and society. 

The same curiosity is part of our teaching. We like sharing what we have learned with our students, but we enjoy their questions just as much, and quite often we are surprised by their answers. An unexpected question from a student can make an experienced researcher stop, think again and see a familiar problem differently. This is one of the best things about a university. We teach, but we never stop learning. 

Our strength also comes from connections. We bring together mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science and earth sciences. Researchers work closely with students, and scientists work side by side with our lab and administrative staff. We also work with colleagues across the university, far beyond the exact sciences. New ideas grow in this kind of environment, and many interesting research questions come up exactly where different fields meet. 

One of the great advantages of Tel Aviv University is simply that it is in Tel Aviv. We are in the middle of a lively city where academia, industry, technology and culture meet. Our ties with industry and with Israeli society, and our collaborations with research institutions around the world, open new opportunities for research and for impact. Our graduates hold key positions in research, in the tech industry and in Israeli society. We are proud of them, and we are glad that they are proud of the Faculty too and stay in touch with us. 

The AI revolution opens up new and exciting possibilities. Here we don't only use these tools, we also develop them and study how they work. We will use them in research and in teaching, without giving up what science is really about: creativity, critical thinking and real conversation between people. 

The last few years have been hard for all of us. Many members of our community served, and are still serving, in military reserve duty, and many carry with them what we have all been through. We see the difficulties and the people behind them. We want to be not only an excellent place for research and teaching, but also a community that supports its members and helps each of them grow and succeed. 

We don't know what questions the next generation of scientists will ask, or what they will discover. But our responsibility is clear. We need to give them the knowledge, the tools, the freedom and the conditions to ask questions we haven't thought of yet, and to discover things we can't imagine today. 

I invite you to get to know the Faculty, our people and our research, and to be part of it. 

Prof. Erez Etzion  

Dean, Faculty of Exact Sciences