David Iluz Ph.D, senior lecturer, is the head (last 8 years) of environmental sciences and agriculture department at Beit Berl College, and a senior lecturer and researcher at Bar Ilan University (BIU). Iluz obtained his Ph.D. from BIU in 1998 summa cum laude, and then he did his post-doctoral fellowship at the Hebrew University. His expertise is in photobiology and ecophysiology of algae and corals. His work is focused on the acclimation of marine and freshwater phytoplankton, macroalgae and corals to the changing environmental conditions such as light – photoacclimation, temperature, salinity and pH. Iluz specializes on the characterization of bio-optical parameters in different biogeochemical provinces of water bodies and their relevance for estimating primary production rates and efficiency as quantum yields. His novel and original contributions define respiration/photosynthesis rates in microalgae under fluctuating light regimes, using novel in-house designed tools such as photoacoustics and OxyPAM. David designed, and operates outdoor advanced photobioreactors to improve algal growth and photosynthesis rates for biotechnological applications.
In his position as head of the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, he has been coaching the teachers of youth rural villages and agricultural farms in Israel, focusing on state-of-the-art precise agricultural practices. In recent years, he introduced novel technologies into the field of teaching, including remote learning and investigative hands-on field workshops.