Schmidt Science Fellowship
Dr. Ofer Neufeld, who recently completed his Ph.D. at the Technion, has been awarded a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship
Dr. Ofer Neufeld
Dr. Ofer Neufeld, who completed three consecutive degrees at the Technion and recently completed his doctoral research in the Faculty of Physics, has been informed that he is the recipient of a Schmidt Science Fellowship. The Schmidt Science Fellows program, which was founded by Wendy and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to cultivate the next generation of science leaders, will fund Dr. Neufeld in his postdoctoral research following his dissertation at the Technion, a thesis that has already won him an Adams Academy Fellowship, a Jacobs Award and the Israel Physical Society Prize for Outstanding theoretical Ph.D. Students.
Dr. Neufeld grew up in Haifa and started out at the Technion studying for a dual B.Sc. in Physics and Materials Science and Engineering. It was already then, while studying organic photovoltaic cells for renewable energy, that he became interested in research and theory.
After completing his dual degree B.Sc. studies, Dr. Neufeld began studying for his M.Sc. in the Grand Technion Energy Program. Under the supervision of Prof. Maytal Caspary Toroker, he researched theoretical methods for improving photoelectrochemical cells for the production of hydrogen fuel from solar energy. On completing his master’s degree summa cum laude, he proceeded to the doctoral program in the Technion Faculty of Physics. Under the supervision of Prof. Oren Cohen, he researched fundamental processes involved in light-matter interactions, specifically, interactions of strong laser fields with atoms and molecules.
Dr. Neufeld is currently pursuing his postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Angel Rubio. The $100,000 Schmidt Science Fellows stipend will be used to support his postdoctoral research.
Dr. Neufeld is the second student from the Technion, and from all of Israel, to be awarded a Schmidt Science Fellowship, after Grisha Spektor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2019.