About the Speakers

Dr Rachel Zorman serves as the executive director of the Henrietta Szold Institute for research in the behavioural sciences in Jerusalem, Israel. She received her PhD in special education from Columbia University, New York.

Dr Zorman taught various courses in gifted education and educational research and assessment at Stanford and San Jose State Universities in the USA, and at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities in Israel.

Dr Zorman specialises in educational and social programme evaluation, and in researching, identifying and nurturing talents among gifted students in general, and among gifted females in particular. She has presented her work in articles, books, and international workshops and conferences.

Dr Zorman directs the identification of gifted students in Israel for the Ministry of Education, testing more than 15,000 elementary school students annually. She heads the Eureka programme, nurturing STEM and visual arts talents among elementary school students from diverse populations. She also leads the National Mentoring Programme for highly gifted high school students for the Ministry of Education. These students are matched with mentors, highly accomplished professionals in the students’ interest areas, who have experience working with adolescents. They work together for a year to do research and/or develop a product in their mutual field. More than half of the students in this programme attain extraordinary professional achievements.