Michael Lazar

I am a professor of marine geophysics, co-founder of the Dr. Moses Strauss Department of Marine Geosciences at the University of Haifa, Israel and Head of the Laboratory for Applied Geophysics. My work revolves around examination of the shallow subsurface through high-resolution geophysical methods to detect, analyze and interpret Holocene-recent effects of tectonics and geology on the environment and on human populations. I am interested not only in how natural geological processes shaped human settlement patterns in the past (tsunamis, sea level rise, etc), but also how ancient settlers shaped their natural environment and in doing so, changed geological process (quarrying stone along the coast increased coastal erosion and created beaches where there were none; redirecting river patterns; etc.). I am also a professional multidisciplinary artist bridging the gap between science and art while making science more accessible to various communities. Over the last few years, along with my scientific courses, I have also begun to teach to courses – “Sound and Environment in Arts and Science” uses sound as a way to explore scientific and artistic concepts; “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Problems (or Climate Change for Artists)”, provides students of the arts with the basic scientific background on environmental change they need to deepen their artistic research. In 2021, I co-curated an online artistic exhibition at COP-26 together with the UN’s Race to Zero (entitled Echoes of the Future). Since 2022, I have organized and co-chaired a special session at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) annual meeting on the art-science interface, and am currently guest editor for a special collection of papers on the topic in Cell Press’s prestigious journal iScience.