Academic Excellence and Social Outreach - Combined

Groundbreaking academic research alongside volunteer work awarded Hagai Diamandi the prestigious Azrieli Fellowship

This past June, Hagai Diamandi, a doctoral candidate at the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering, learned he was being honored with the Azrieli Fellowship, one of the most esteemed honors bestowed on doctoral fellows in Israel. Diamandi, 30, who began his work this year under Prof. Avi Zadok at Bar-Ilan’s Faculty of Engineering, specializes in optomechanics, and examines the use of optical fibers as sensors. “Our research focuses on the interaction between optical fields and mechanical vibrations of the structures in which they propagate.  . In the past two years we were able to demonstrate how, by an educated selection of the mechanical vibrations and the optical fields, we can differentiate between different fluids outside the fiber – a feat thus far considered impossible,” explains Diamandi. “Additionally, we were able to demonstrate how to design and build a feedback loop that can push the mechanical vibrations within the fiber into narrow-band coherent oscillations, in a frequency controlled by the fiber’s acoustics.  Both these studies were published in prominent electro-optics journals, and we also patented the sensor experiment.”

The Azrieli Fellowships is only awarded to doctoral fellows combining academic excellence with community outreach. Diamandi and his wife have been volunteering together for three years in Tzohar. They provide premarital guidance to engaged couples. “We try to organize a pleasant evening for the couple, and provide Halachic teaching alongside an open conversation about marriage and partnership. Our challenge is to offer a Limmud evening for couples on the eve of their wedding, and award them with a meaningful experience before starting their life together,” says Diamandi. 

The Azrieli Fellowship, aiming to cultivate academic and social excellence, is a great honor, both for Hagai and for the Faculty of Engineering. “I have to thank Mrs. Dina Yeminy, the Administrative Faculty Head, my instructor Prof. Avi Zadok, and my lab teammates, without whom this never would have happened.”