2021 Peled Prize Winners

Noa Broder is an Alpha Program student at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

She was awarded the 2021 Peled Prize for her research on “The Creation of Atomic Particles.” Her research was conducted within the framework of the Alpha Program in Ben Gurion University of the Negev’s Nano-fabrication unit, under the tutelage of Dr. Erez Golan.

Noa’s research made it to the finals of the Young Scientists and Developers in Israel competition. Noa explained that the electronics industry is on a mission to minimize the electronic particles in order to increase the speed of processors’ calculations. Currently used in all computers, electronic particles are based on the movement of electrons. Conversely, there are new particles currently being researched that are called atomic particles. These are based on the capturing of single atoms using magnetic fields, the cooling of atoms until they come to a near-complete stop, and controlling their movement. Despite the significant differences between these two types of particles, there are similarities regarding the process in which they are created. The process in which atomic particles are created involves the use of SU8 photoresist. This substance, also used in the creation of electronic particles, can isolate the particles, provides satisfactory transparency, is suitable for work in high vacuum states, has strong mechanical properties and structural stability - all characteristics befitting of the photolithography process. An important goal in this creation process is the outer layer’s low level of ‘roughness,’ which enables one to observe it under a golden mirror layer. Noa examined two factors that influence the roughness level:

1. The thickness of the photoresist layer placed on the base layer

2. The photoresist’s chemical concentration. The results indicate that one can create an atomic particle that can more efficiently return laser beams. This study used highly-advanced tools.

Gali Inbar is an Alpha Program student at the Tel Aviv University for Youth.

She was awarded the 2021 Peled Prize for her research on polymer micelles as smart drug transportation systems. The research was conducted within the framework of the Alpha Program at Tel Aviv University’s School of Chemistry, under the tutelage of Professor Roi Amir and doctoral student, Gadi Slur.  

Gali explained that the method of sending out medications enables a more focused transportation of medication molecules to specific body tissue, by means of nano-carriers. A nano-carrier is a general name for a group of nano-particles that can bind themselves to the medication’s molecules - or capture them - and transport them to the target area in the body, break down selectively, and release the medication into the target tissue. One of the common types of nano-carriers is the micelle. The goal of this study was to understand the effect of various types of connections within the amphibious molecules that comprise the micelle, as well as within the molecules that are trapped within the micelle, how they are trapped, and what the trapping process entails. Two types of micelles and two types of hydrophobic molecules that simulate medications trapped in micelles were used. A tool examined four different systems for each micelle, as well as each hydrophobic-medication-simulating-molecule’s trapping capabilities. The study found that there is a connection between the hydrophobic-ness of the chemical connection in the nucleus, and the micelle’s trapping capability. The results indicate that there is an advantage to the אסטרי connection over the האמידות connection, with respect to the medication’s trapping efficiency within the micelle. Namely, the more functional the connection is within the micelle’s nucleus, the more functional the connection is within the medication-modeling-molecule (more hydrophobic), leading to the medication-modeling-molecule achieving greater trapping rates. This understanding can lead to the better controlling of medication molecule concentrations within the desired nuclei. During her study, Gali used analytical tools.