An office at Ben Gurion University

This morning, I met with my department chairman, Dr. Oren Vilnay, who is absolutely charming.  He had been the chairman of structural engineering at the Technion, but was recruited to come to Ben Gurion University to build a new program in structural engineering with a free hand (no traditions) to make the department in his vision.  So he, and the department, are quite entrepreneurial, a lot like our CME department at UMKC. They have a lot more students than we do at UMKC  - ~100 seniors in structural engineering.  Dr. Vilnay is also a fan of opera (and has season tickets to Covent Garden in London!) and had pursued studies in piano before engineering.

And I spent some time with my colleague who teaches structural senior design:  Dr. Igal Shohet.  He's all about helping me learn more about Israel (which is great).  I'll be having a second meeting with him later this week.

So, my office is #672 in the H3 Building of the Hias Campus.  Stop by for a coffee if you're in the area!  The office looks onto Szold St - at the very expensive hotel across the street (Leonardo Hotel).

Here's a photo of the Hias Campus courtyard and building H3:

P.S. I bought some halvah today. Halvah is a sesame-based sweetish item.  I had some in college and was pretty ambivalent about its value as a dessert/confection.  But I've seen it a lot, often as big bricks, where they cut off a piece and sell it like cheese.  Anyway, the halvah I bought was soft and tasty.  And it's a really good nutritional snack.  Maybe what I had in college was stale.  It'll make a great thing for my lunch bag.