|
Dr. Giora Ram
|
|
Dr. Giora Ram () (Born March 22, 1947) is an Israeli Scientist and Businessperson. Biography He was born in Budapest, Hungary (as Weiser Gyorgy, Gyuri) to a Hungarian Jewish family. His grandfather was a famous Cantor (Weiser Fulop, his songs appeared in records in 1910, thank to George Soros, two of his songs (#15,#16) appeared on recent CD-Jewish Cantorial Music from Hungary 1906-1929) His mother (Esther, Hoch=Ram, b. 1909-d. 1986) a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz, who lost her husband and all her eight sisters and two brothers and their children during the war (WWII), survived the war with her 2 children (Robert-Dov and Zsuzsi-Rachel (b. 1937-d. 1998), Dov Ram (b. 1935), Res. Brigadier General Israeli Navy). She married Weiser Salomon (b. 1907-d. 1967), who came back from in 1945. Giora (Gyuri) was born in 1947 and his brother Pinchas (Tibor) in 1950. They were active Zionists and their house often used as gathering and last stop before leaving the country illegally. In 1949 they tried to escape to Austria and from there to Israel. The two eldest children Dov (14) and Rachel (12) joined a youth group who successfully crossed the border and reached Israel. A few days later the rest of the family with another group tried to leave, but they were captured at the border. Giora (2) was separated from his parents and put in a Monastery; his parents were imprisoned for about a year and all their property were confiscated by the Hungarian authorities. Giora went to regular school in Budapest and also to 'Cheder' (alternatively, Cheider, in Hebrew חדר, meaning "room") until 1956, when the family immigrated legally to Israel. They stayed at the Orthodox quarter of Viznitz Bnei Brak for about a year, mainly because of their uncle, Rabbi Davidovitz, who later prepared Giora for his Bar Mitzvah. He earned his first Lira (Pound) at age of twelve distributing political leaflets. As teenager, he worked in diversified jobs, such as: orange picking in orchards, at building constructions, laundry and deliveries, selling the fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica (Sabres) and tutoring. In 1965 he finished his undergraduate studies (Bar-Ilan, Netanya) and was drafted to the Israeli army where he served in various duties. He was honorably discharged after the "Six Days War" in 1967 (Res. Navy's Science Officer). Education and Professional Experience In 1970 he received his B.Sc. In Mathematics and Statistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (supplement studies in Economics and Computer Sciences). To finance his studies, he was employed at the Bureau of Statistics by the Prime Minister Office, he worked with Prof. Mazar in Archeology excavating Herod's floor in Jerusalem, (Benjamin Mazar, headed excavations in the 1960/70s of the earthen platform - the Temple Mount, which is believed to be the site of the first and second Jewish temples), selling 'holy water'… and flowers to tourists and teaching private lessons in Mathematics. He received a special study grant from Pinchas Sapir's fund. In his Mathematical studies (Functional Analysis) he was exposed to Radon-Nikodim formula/transform, which later was used for (CAT) in medical imaging systems. Giora received his M.Sc. in Computer Sciences (Image Processing) from the Weizmann Institute from Rehovot in 1973. At the Institue he was engaged in various scientific activities including research assistant at the Geophysical Laboratory (Prof. Ari Ben-Menahem and Dr. Hans Jarosch), where he was developing and implementing computer algorithms and programs to process and analyze seismology and physics related data. One of those programs related to Radon-Nikodim, the basis for the CAT scanner invention lead by Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan M. Cormack from EMI, England, who received the Nobel Prize in 1979. Giora was also developing computer programs at the Weizmann Institute working on DEC PDP 11&15, developing compilers and interpreters for FORTRAN, BASIC, in machine language, LISP, SNOBOL, COBOL, ALGOL, PL1, some time before Bill Gates…made his deal with IBM. In 1973 he was chosen by the European Space Research Organization in Darmstadt, Germany (ESRO, later changed to European Space Agency - ESA), from a large number of International candidates, to develop their METEOSAT satellite image simulator (Meteosat-1 was launched in 1977). He also was with ESTEC at Noordwijk, The Netherlands. In 1975 he returned to Israel and joined Elscint Ltd. (NYSE-ELT) to develop the first Nuclear Medicine data processor and analysis system (DYCOM). He was sent to Elscint's London based International Sales and Service office in 1978 as Product Manager. In London he was accepted by the British Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) for Ph.D. studies in Medical Physics/Imaging at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith hospital. The Doctorate was awarded in London in 1984, his work was filed with the British Library and part was published in various International scientific journals. As Product Manager who traveled between hospitals and scientific institutions worldwide, he accumulated extensive marketing and technical related information, which he passed back to his employer. Among those proposals were the specifications and the need to develop a "dual-head" Gamma camera and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). At the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, he developed and implemented a PET computer program using a . As his novel proposals were somewhat premature, they were rejected by the company, so he left Elscint in 1980 and joined Capintec Inc.,New Jersey, USA as Director of R&D. He was responsible for the development a multi-modality imaging system (PACS), which was presented at the RSNA meeting in Chicago in 1982; he was also involved in the development of a Radiation Therapy Planning (RTP) system. In 1983 Giora and his family returned to Israel to start his private business activities as a consultant. Among his first projects was the establishment of the Imaging Laboratory at Tadiran Ltd, where he carried out imaging related activities that were part of the new Israeli aircraft project - the Lavy. Another successful consulting project leads to his nomination as the President of a medical monitoring company, which was under bankruptcy (COM, later Cardiac Care Units (CCU), Haifa Israel). Dr. Ram has implemented a comprehensive reorganization plan, defined new product line (Compas, a digital Holter cardiac ECG monitor), received the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and in 1986 and 1987 received the "Approved Exporter Award", from Ariel Sharon, Minister of Industry and Trade. Dr. Ram met with Ariel Sharon several times (in 1977 when he formed the political party Shlomtzion Hebrew: שלומציון, a contraction of Shalom-Zion, or Peace-Zion and several times during 1984-7, while Sharon was Minister of Industry and Trade. Sharon also thanked Dr. Ram in a letter (June 2, 1985) for his support during his libel law suit against Time magazine. Among the key Israeli Government individuals, in addition to Ariel Sharon, Dr. Ram met with Prime Ministers Shimon Peres (Today the President of the State of Israel) and Yitzhak Shamir, Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino (Health Minister) and with Moshe Shahal. In 2006 he was elected by the US-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF), under their Technology Excellence Fellowship Program and spent few months at The Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, where he performed a research related to spinal cord injury. Imexco General Ltd. Dr. Ram is the President and founder of Imexco General Ltd., a Patient Monitoring innovator in Neurology and Cardiology since 1987. In 1991 he negotiated and sold a product through a license agreement to a newly formed subsidiary of the Israel Aircraft Industries that went public in the US (NASDAQ-MDTL) in 1993. Imexco owns proprietary core technologies successfully implemented in the development of a new neuro-brain and cardiac monitors (FDA approved) Dr. Ram has an extensive inter-disciplinary background in product development and marketing mainly in healthcare related companies. He served, among other capacities, as a business and technological advisor at several Israeli high-tech companies. He speaks Hungarian, Hebrew, English and German, divorced and has three children (Rakefet (b.1975), Marganit (b. 1981) and Erez (b. 1994)), his hobby is antiques and collectables, painting and wood carvings. 
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Main Menu
| Home |
| Articles |
| Search |
| Submit Article |
| Contact Us |
| Donate to Wikibin |
