Personal

Current address :

Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,

MA 02139, USA.

Office :

54-416

E-Mail :

davidpol [at] mit.edu

david.polishook [at] weizmann.ac.il (old but still active)

david [at] wise.tau.ac.il (old but still active)

Telephones :

office/ +1-617-324-8132      fax/ +1-617-253-2886

Born :

February 1976

Marital Status :

Married + 1

Languages :

Hebrew, English, basic Spanish

Education

2011-

:

AXA Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Supervisor: Prof. Richard, P. Binzel.

2010-2011

:

Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics,
the Weizmann Institute of Science. Supervisor: Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam.

2005-2010

:

Ph.D. in planetary science, Tel-Aviv University.
under the supervision of Prof. Dina Prialnik and Dr. Noah Brosch.
Subject: Asteroid spin evolution _ observations and implications.

2002-2005

:

M.Sc. in planetary science, Tel-Aviv University.
under the supervision of Prof. Dina Prialnik and Dr. Noah Brosch.
Subject: Photometry of Atens _ on the properties of near-Earth objects.

1999-2002

:

B.Sc. in Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, and in General History,

Tel-Aviv University.

Employment and Activities

2010-2011

:

Writer for the Galileo popular magazine for science and thought.

2007-2010

:

Lecturer of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC).

2005-2009

:

Lecturer at the Science Oriented Youth unit, Tel Aviv University.

2005-2008

:

Lecturer of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Open University.

2002-2010

:

Astronomer at the Wise observatory.

2000-2001

:

Software programmer, Tecnomatix Ltd. The eM-Power division.

1998-1999

:

Software programmer, Tecnomatix Ltd. The Robcad division.

Programming experience

Languages and programming environments: C, C++, Delphi, MATLAB, IRAF.

Software experience in astronomy: control software for the Wise Observatory especially in its automatization; writing a pipeline for reduction and measurement of photometry and spectroscopy in IRAF, for data obtained from wide-field surveys; writing analysis code in MATLAB.

Awards & Scholarships

2011-13

:

The AXA post-doctoral fellowship, by the AXA research fund.

2008-10

:

Ilan Ramon scholarship for excellent Ph.D. students in space sciences, by the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport.

2010

:

Hartmann student travel grant to the DPS meeting at Pasadena, 2010, by the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

2010

:

Special prize for excellent Ph.D. student by the faculty of Exact Sciences.

2009

:

Annual prize for excellent Ph.D. students in the department of geophysics and planetary sciences.

2006

:

Alix de-Rothschild scholarship for excellent Ph.D. students, at the faculty of exact science.

2005

:

M.Sc. Tel-Aviv University, summa cum laudae.

2003

:

B.Sc. Tel-Aviv University, magna cum laudae.

2002

:

Dean of exact sciences award for excellence for undergraduate students.

Conferences & Seminars

2012 May

:

Niigata, Japan

ACM 2012 - Asteroids, Comets, Meteors

Talk & Posters

2012 Jan

:

Meudon, France

MarcoPolo-R workshop

Talk

2011 Oct

:

Nantes, France

DPS 2011 - Division of Planetary Sciences 43^nd meeting

Talk

2010 Dec

:

Tel-Aviv University, Israel

A seminar talk at the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences department

Seminar Talk

2010 Oct

:

Pasadena, USA

DPS 2010 - Division of Planetary Sciences 42^nd meeting

Poster

2010 Jul

:

Poznan, Poland

Binaries in the Solar System second workshop

Talk

2009 Dec

:

Bar-Ilan University

IPS 2009 - Israel Physics Society. 55^th annual meeting.

Talk

2009 Apr

:

UCLA, USA

A seminar talk at the Earth and Planetary Sciences department

Seminar Talk

2009 Apr

:

CalTech, USA

A seminar talk at the Astrophysics department

Seminar Talk

2008 Dec

:

Ben-Gurion University, Israel

IPS 2008 - Israel Physics Society. 54^th annual meeting.

Talk

2008 Jul

:

Baltimore, USA

ACM 2008 - Asteroids, Comets, Meteors

Talk & Poster

2008 Apr

:

Wiezmann institute, Israel

AsCoS 2008 - The Israeli Astrophysics & Cosmology Student Conference Series.

Talk

2008 Apr

:

Cairo, Egypt

MEARIM - 1^st regional meeting of the IAU

Poster

2008 Feb

:

Hebrew University, Israel

A seminar talk at the Racah institute of physics

Seminar Talk

2007 Dec

:

Wiezmann institute, Israel

IPS 2007 - Israel Physics Society. 53^rd annual meeting.

Talk

2005 Aug

:

Buzios, Brazil

ACM 2005 - Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (IAU 229).

Poster & Poster

2005 Mar

:

Sde-Boker, Israel

On Science and Imagination - following Jules Verne.

Talk

Educational and Community Activities

2003-2010

:

Co-organizer of the Tel-Aviv University astronomy club public lecture and activities.

2003-2010

:

Lectures, writings and educational activities in astronomy and physics for children and adults, at schools, academy, the internet and the media (http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~david/PublicOutreach.htm).

1999-2002

:

"PERAH" - Tutoring projects for children from disadvantaged families.