Established by the late André Cohen Deloro during his lifetime to support academic excellence in Israel—particularly within medical and scientific research—the Adelis Foundation inaugurated the annual Adelis Brain Research Award in 2015. The purpose of the Award is to encourage excellence among young Israeli neuroscientists, promote greater understanding of the structure and function brain in health and disease, and strengthen the impact for the Israeli neuroscience community.

A committee of renowned experts in brain research selected Dr. Ziv for his efforts to identify the biological mechanisms that create and store memories. Dr. Ziv has made significant contributions to the field through the development of new experimental methods to observe large populations of neurons in the brains of live mice over the course of weeks and months. Moreover, his optical imaging approach—involving fluorescent microscopes that can be mounted on the heads of freely moving mice—has been adopted and widely used by other researchers to study the brain.

Dr. Ziv’s current research focuses on the hippocampus and related cortical circuits that are important for spatial navigation and for memories of places and events. He aims to clarify how different patterns of neuronal activity encode specific experiences and how these patterns and the relationships among them change over time, and as a function of experience. He also aims to elucidate the degree to which memories of different experiences are organized similarly in the brains of different individuals.

Dr. Ziv is supported by the Adelis Brain Research Award, the Pasteur-Weizmann Delegation, and the European Research Council. He is the incumbent of the Dr. Daniel E. Koshland Career Development Chair.