The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research is part of the Ben-Gurion University, and is located in the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus in the centre of the Negev desert in Israel.
The Institute was established in 1974 as a result of a recommendation made by the Israeli Council for Higher Education in 1972. It was renamed as the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research in 1980 after a donation to the university by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.
The institute is currently home to 65 scientists, 60 technical and administrative staff members, and over 100 Israeli and foreign research students studying within the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies. The prime areas of research are environmental physics, solar energy, water and wastewater resources, agriculture, biotechnology, desert ecology and desert architecture.
David Faiman, who helped establish the Institute, is the chairman of its Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics.[1] He is also director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center, which is operated by the Institute.
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