Fulbright Israel 70

American Fulbright alumnus, Professor Felix Bloch was a Nobel Prize Laurate in Physics in 1952. Seven years later, he came from Stanford University to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, as a Fulbright Lecturer Fellow. He was the first Fulbright alumni to have won a Nobel Prize.

A nuclear physicist, Bloch’s crowning achievement was the technique he developed for accurately observing and measuring the magnetic properties of nuclear particles, what he called “nuclear induction.” Bloch received half of the Nobel Prize for the discovery of this method, along with American physicist Edward Purcell. Later known as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), it is the basis of the medical imaging technique, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Fulbright Israel was delighted to co-host a special anniversary event with the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in early February. The event celebrated 70 years of Fulbright Israel, 125 years of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, and 250 years of the United States of America.

The full-day event was held at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem and was attended by scholars from diverse institutions, research focuses and generations, seeing a 50-year span of Fulbright Israel alumni, including those from 1976 to the current fellows in 2026! The event displayed an exciting variety of conversations, research presentations and addresses, highlighting the significant contributions of American and Israeli scholars to archaeology and the premodern world. It was an honor for the attendees to be joined by the Honorable Mike Huckabee, United States Ambassador to Israel, who opened the reception, speaking warmly of the Fulbright program and his deep admiration of the field.