10 Long Islanders make a mark in Israeli labs

Ten college undergraduates from Long Island — including students from Woodmere and Lawrence — participated in the sixth annual Summer Science Research Internship Program, a joint initiative between Israel’s Bar-Ilan University and Yeshiva University. The program offers students hands-on experience in emerging scientific fields while they are mentored by some of Israel’s finest scientists.

One of these students, Brianna Friedman, of Merrick, a pre-med biology major about to embark upon her senior year at Stern College, said the program allowed her to participate “in cutting edge research in my field, providing me with an opportunity to improve my own research skills and knowledge, as well as impact the scientific community.

“It also provides me with a unique opportunity to understand life in Israel as a scientist and researcher — to work alongside real people with families and careers living in the land of Israel.”

Friedman said the program “has definitely helped strengthen ties between young U.S. Jews and Israel by giving us such an amazing opportunity to live and work here for seven weeks. I plan on ultimately making aliyah and this program has shown me further that one can achieve one’s dreams, have a family and career, in Israel.”

Bar-Ilan faculty member Prof. Ron Goldstein, of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, is Friedman’s mentor. Under his tutelage, Friedman worked on a project that once would have been thought of as science fiction — converting one kind of a cell into another.