BRAVERMAN, AVISHAY

BRAVERMAN, AVISHAY (1948– ), Israeli economist and president of Ben-Gurion University. His fields of inquiry are development economics, agricultural economics, industrial organization, public policy, and management of water resources. Braverman was born in Ramat Gan, Israel. In 1968 he graduated in economics and statistics from Tel Aviv University and in 1976 he received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. From 1976 until 1990 he served as senior economist and as a division chief in the World Bank in Washington. In this position he participated in research programs, projects, and policy work of the World Bank for South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. In 1990 he was appointed president of Ben-Gurion University and succeeded in getting it out of the red. Under his presidency, the university tripled its student body. Braverman was made a member of several international economic associations, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Israeli-American High-Tech Commission for Science and Technology. He was awarded the Ben-Gurion Prize in 1999 for his leadership in developing the Negev. He wrote several books and lectured on globalization, educational reform, and the Middle East. In 2006 he was elected to the Knesset on the Labor list. (Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)