Steinhardt Museum of Natural History

The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History (Hebrew: מוזיאון הטבע ע״ש שטיינהרדט), Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies at Tel Aviv University, is a natural history museum in Israel, including both education and a research center. It is the largest and most active center in Israel of documentation and science, focusing on biodiversity research and its varied applications including nature conservation, environmental protection, and agriculture.
The museum is set for the discovery, collections development and care, and scientific categorization of millions of specimens, documenting the flora and fauna in Israel and the Middle East for thousands of years, as well as the history of humankind and its interactions with the environment. It provides access to the public and the scientific and professional community.
Collections holding some 5.5 million items, accumulated by scientists from Tel Aviv University and other institutions, were moved to the new museum before it opened to the public in July 2018.
The museum was designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects. The 9,620 sq m five-story building was designed as a "Treasure Box" or "Noah's Ark".
Thousands of items from the collections, used primarily for basic and applied research, for teaching and training, are presented to the public as part of exhibitions. Exhibition spaces comprise over 1,700 square meters in nine themed exhibitions: bird migration; Israel's diversity of ecosystems; bugs and beyond; life in the dark; (animal) shape, structure and functions; human impact on the environment; interaction between animals; treasures of the collections.
The specimens record the fauna and flora of the region over the past century, as well as the development and history of humankind. The collections are an extremely active National Research Infrastructure that is used by over 500 scientists, graduate students, and professionals from Israel and the world every year.
The museum integrates and absorbs the educational activities previously conducted within "Campus-Teva" at Tel Aviv University.
The Israel Taxonomy Initiative (ITI), a project supported by the higher education system of Israel, government ministries and agencies, and various research institutions, functions within the museum. Its main activities aim to revive the field of taxonomy, to train of taxonomists, and to deepen the knowledge of the biodiversity of Israel. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to contribute to the study, conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems in Israel.
The museum building is located in the east of Tel Aviv University campus, across the Diaspora Museum gate, adjacent to the Botanical Gardens and the I. Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research.
The Zoological Museum (School of Zoology, George S Wise Faculty of Life Sciences), the National Herbarium of algae, fungi, and lichen (Department of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants, Faculty of Life Sciences), National Anthropological Collections (Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine), and the collections and laboratories of biological archaeology (Institute of Archeology, Faculty of Humanities) have joined forces to establish the museum.
The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities recognized the collections as national collections, a national museum of natural history in the making, while the National Council for Research & Development recognizes them as a National Research Infrastructure. The Ministry of Science & Technology recognizes the museum as a Knowledge center in agricultural and the environment.
The construction of the museum building was made possible following the support of Michael Steinhardt, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and his wife, Judy, as well as donations from other foundations and individuals (Yad Hanadiv, Dan David Foundation, Arison Foundation, KKL-JNF, Millie Phillips, Colette Kerber, and Haim Filler, as well as government assistance provided by the Planning and Grants Committee of the Council for Higher Education, the Ministries of Environmental Protection; Agriculture and Rural Development; Tourism; Science & Technology).
The museum is chaired by Prof. Tamar Dayan of the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, with Alon Sapan acting as director. The collections operate under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and with the support of the Planning and Grants Committee of the Council for Higher Education.