Rivka Carmi

Early life and education

Carmi was born in Israel and raised in Zichron Yaacov. She was an officer in the IDF (Captain) and served as the commander of academics officers' training school. during Yom Kippur War, she participated in establishing the missing in action (MIA) accounting unit in the IDF. Carmi is a graduate of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hadassah Medical School. She completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatology at the Soroka University Medical Center and an additional fellowship in medical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University Medical School.

Research

Prior to her entry into the administrative arena of the University, Professor Carmi’s research focused mainly on the delineation of the clinical manifestations and molecular basis of genetic diseases in the Negev Arab-Bedouin population. Author of over 150 publications in medical genetics, her research included the identification of 12 new genes and the delineation of 2 new syndromes, one of which is known as the Carmi Syndrome. Carmi first academic publication (1977) described an accumulation of carbon dioxide oxygen hoods, infant cots and incubators in possible relation with the sudden infant death phenomenon. Her community outreach projects were aimed at preventing hereditary diseases and advancing women's education in the Bedouin community. She was deeply involved with the establishment of major biotechnology initiatives at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and served as the Acting Director of the nascent National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev.

Academic and related positions

Professor Carmi was the Director of the Genetics Institute at the Soroka University Medical Center and held several important academic administrative positions in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Promoted to full professor in 1995, she is the incumbent of the Kreitman Foundation Chair in Pediatric Genetics. In 2000, she was elected Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU – also the first woman to hold this position in Israel – and held this position for five years. Between the years 2002 – 2005 she was the first in the country to chair the Israeli Association of Medical Deans. Between the years 2010-2012 she chaired VERA – Association of University Heads.

In addition to her duties as President, Professor Carmi remains a member and serves as a consultant of national, professional and public committees and organizations, is a scientific reviewer for various international journals and funding agencies and serves on the editorial board of prestigious scientific journals.

Rivka Carmi serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Genesis Prize Foundation. She is a founding member of the UK-Israel Science Council and served as its co-chair alongside Professor Raymond Dwek in the years 2010-2017. On April 4, 2013 the Minister of Justice, MP Tzipi Livni, appointed Carmi to be part of the Rivlin Committee. The committee examined the compensation agreement for workers of the nuclear research facility in Dimona that were exposed to ionizing radiation and diagnosed with cancer. In May 2014 Carmi was appointed to be a member of the Locker Committee which examined Israel's national defense budget. In addition, Carmi acts to advance the status of women in general and in the academic and medical spheres in particular. In 2011 she was appointed chairperson of the Promotion and Representation of Women in Higher Education Institutions Committee (the so-called Carmi Team).[1] In 2015 she performed as the head of the task force of the Israeli Medical Association to examine the status of women in medicine.[2]

Honors

Recent noteworthy honors she has received include: