Event Honoring Bill Gates Raises Over $1.5 Million for Sustainable Agriculture Research at The Hebrew University of...( Founder of Microsoft and the Bill &am...),Health

Founder of Microsoft and the Bill & MelindaGatesFoundationLaudsUniversity for its Breakthroughs in the Field

NEW YORK, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American Friends of The Hebrew University (AFHU) awarded Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp. and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with its inaugural Einstein Award at a gala dinner on December 2 at the New York Hilton.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081205/NY50250 )

Proceeds from the dinner, currently in excess of $1,500,000 and expected to continue to climb, will help to fund cutting-edge plant and animal science research at The Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Israel. The Faculty, which is the first and only degree-granting academic institution of its kind in Israel, has become a world leader in the development of innovations such as drip irrigation, soil solarization, aquaculture, functional foods and new techniques for wastewater reclamation.

The prestigious Einstein Award was inspired by the legacy of Albert Einstein, a founding father of The Hebrew University, who revolutionized human understanding and whose actions were rooted in the belief that true progress requires the alleviation of human suffering.

In accepting the Einstein Award, Mr. Gates noted the incredible progress that has been made in recent decades in improving health around the world, and cited specific breakthroughs by The Hebrew University that have drastically improved the human condition, such as drip irrigation. Describing the arid soil and ongoing acute water shortage in Israel, Mr. Gates recognized that these very conditions will become more pervasive
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