Professor Shlomo Havlin of the Physics Department at Bar-Ilan University has been awarded with the "Order of the Star of Italy," one of Italy’s highest civilian honors. Italian Ambassador Francesco Maria Talo' made the presentation Tuesday morning during a ceremony opening Havlin's colloquium on "Cascading Failures and Recovery in Interacting Networks".
The Order of the Star of Italy is conferred upon those who have acquired special merit in the promotion of friendly relations and cooperation between Italy and other countries. Ambassador Talo' praised Havlin for his important contribution to international scientific collaborations, and in particular for connecting Israel to Italy. The Ambassador attributed Havlin's success to his ability "not only to understand science, but also to make others understand his own discoveries. Not only to write scientific papers but also to be readable by others... This prize is just a beginning: it is a commitment to foster and expand scientific collaborations between Israel and Italy."
The university noted that the strength of Havlin's international collaborations is represented by the fact that he is the second most cited Israeli scientist ever, with close to 70,000 citations in total.