From the Chairman
Over the past year, the official name and legal status of the Neaman Institute were changed. The institute's name was changed from "Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology" to "Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research." The change was made in coordination and with the consent of the President of the Technion and the Steering Committee of the Senate, and with the unanimous approval of the two formal bodies of the Institute: the five-member Board of the Institute and the seven-member Assembly of the Company. The new name is totally compatible with the mission of the Institute and the substance of the work it is carrying out since its establishment, as well as with the vision of its founder, Mr. Shmuel (Sam) Neaman. The Institute's legal status was changed according to the legal requirement of the State of Israel to convert all companies in the status of "non-profit company" to a status of "public benefit company". The change in the Institute's legal status does not require any changes regarding its administrative, financial and scientific management, or its areas of activity.
The tenure of Prof. Moshe Moshe, the Executive Director of Neaman Institute, was supposed to end on June 30th, 2011. To my great joy, Moshe acceded to my request to extend his term by another year, until June 30th, 2012. For three years now, Moshe has been leading the Institute brilliantly, and, as can be seen from this report, has led us to many impressive achievements that benefit the country and bring the Institute satisfaction and pride, and for this we all thank him.
In our contemporary global and competitive world, it is common and fashionable to rank everything, just as in sports. Surfing the Internet, one can find ranking of countries according to their "competitiveness"; of universities according to the number of Nobel Prizes awarded to their faculty; of MBA Departments according to the starting salaries of their graduates; of scientists according to their H-factor; of actors according to the Oscars they have won; of politicians according to their popularity; of authors according to the number of books they have sold; of movies according to the millions they have made; of CEOs according to the level of their compensation; of chefs according to the number of Michelin stars they have won; of wines according to the medals given, based on the nose and taste buds of expert wine tasters.
Well, finally, policy research institutes (think tanks), such as the Neaman Institute, have also been categorized and ranked. Professor James G. McGann, the manager of the International Relations Program at Pennsylvania University, published in January 2011 an updated and comprehensive study on think tanks around the world, under the heading of "The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program". About 1,500 researchers and decision makers participated in identifying, classifying and ranking the institutes. A total of 6,480 think tanks were identified in 169 countries, and, finally, 250 experts were asked to review and rate the think tanks. The geographical distribution of the think tanks indicates that about 30% of them are located in the USA, 27% in Europe, 18% in Asia, 11% in Latin America, 8% in Africa, and 5% in the Middle East. In Israel, 54 think tanks were identified, and in terms of the number of think tanks it is rated 18th in the world. In the Middle East, Israel is leading with the number of think tanks, followed by Egypt, with 34 think tanks. Among the leading 75 think tanks there is only one Israeli think tank listed, the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. In the area of science and technology policy 94 think tanks were identified globally and Neaman Institute is ranked in the 24th position.
Obviously, these rankings are problematic in many ways and should be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the success of the Neaman Institute is also reflected in the number of visits to the Institute's website, which, as detailed in this report, reached in 2010 the number of 212,000 visitors, viewing 170 publications, news items and
recorded conventions (that is, an average of more than 500 visitors/day). The visitors of the Samuel Neaman Institute include economic leaders, decision makers, and leading researchers in Israel and around the world.
Professor Zehev Tadmor
The Chairman of the Samuel Neaman Institute
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