TamarLotan University of HaifaIsrael

Prof. Tamar Lotan is a co-founder of the Marine Biology Department at the Leon Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, where she served as Head of the department from 2018 to 2022. Her main interests lie in marine biology, focusing on Cnidaria (jellyfish, coral, sea anemone) one of the most ancient and colorful multicellular phyla, dated to 700 million ago. Her research spans marine fieldwork and lab work, combining molecular biology, multi-omics techniques, lab-on-chip technology, high-speed microscopic imaging, as well as drone and underwater imaging, to study jellyfish aggregation, developmental plasticity, regenerative capability, evolution, and the mechanisms of ultra-fast cnidarian stinging capsules. She founded two biotech companies, one in the field of healthcare and the other in drug delivery, leveraging the cnidarian stinging mechanism for human care. Prof. Lotan holds a BSc and an MSc in biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a PhD in genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.