Ori Zvikelsky

Dr. Gabriel Rubanenko, Dr. Peter Geyber & Dr. Eugene Glosman Prize for Excellence in Water Research, 2005.

Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology,
Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research,
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

My name is Ori Zvikelsky and I am thirty years old. I was born in Kefar-Saba, Israel, but for most of my life I lived, with my two younger brothers and elder sister, in Netanya, on the Mediterranean Sea. My hobbies are diving, fishing, hiking and reading. In 1993 I graduated from "Ort Leibovitch" high school and joined the army. After finishing army service I began to work as a production assistant in the modest Israeli film industry and soon I became a location manager. In 1998 I took a break from the film industry and, traditionally, moved on to explore other exotic places far from the Middle East. One of these was India, where I met my future wife, Dana. By 1999 we were back in Israel and moved south to Beer Sheva for our academic studies at Ben-Gurion University. In 2002 I graduated from the department of Geology and Environmental Sciences. Currently I am just completing my M.Sc. degree.

Description of research:

Colloidal Transport in Naturally Discrete Fractured Chalk

Supervisors: Dr. Noam Weisbrod, Dr. Dodik Avraham and Dr. Avner Vengosh

The topic of my research deals with the transport of solid micro-particles (colloids) in the subsurface and especially in fractures. In recent years the study of colloidal transport has been highlighted due to the importance of colloids as contaminant carriers. My research focused on the impact of colloid size on colloidal transport in fractured chalk. The results show that colloid size has a great impact on colloidal transport in fractures and that 0.2 mm was found to be the optimal colloidal diameter for transport in fractures.