BAR-ILAN INSTITUTE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED MATERIALS | 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

them to our partners, who have slightly different systems. We all came to the same conclusion and confirmed that the fragments found on the suspect’s bag originated from the windshield of the ‘stolen’ vehicle,” explains Dr. Girshevitz. She adds: “Our method does not replace the need for well-known and popular techniques, but can and absolutely should be used when there is a doubt regarding forensic findings. This can save time and effort on the search for a suspected car, for instance. Additionally, the Israeli police provided us with 50 samples of glass from cars and we catalogued them by make, model and year of production and we are now building a glass index or library. Such an index will assist police in quickly identifying the specific make and model of a suspected vehicle. Using this same method, Dr. Girshevitz analyzed French and Portuguese coins sent to her from the Louvre in Paris, some of which are 100-200 years old. A number of coins were used as a reference for future analysis of the same coins. “We proved our ability to identify coin compounds and date them accordingly. Consequently, an article was published, providing a highly validated art authentication technique for museums and private collectors.” BINA’s international relations with counterpart nano institutions result in many different kinds of collaborations. One such collaboration involves Chroma Technology, US. BINA purchased nano fabrication equipment and visited Chroma to learn and to generate ideas about its operation and properties. BINA’s leading scholars communicated our unique abilities, and since then, Chroma, one of the largest antireflection coating developers worldwide, uses our analysis service. Without cutting the materials, this kind of surface analysis helps Chroma gain insight on the changes resulting from fabrication and production processes and the reengineering corrections that need to be made. The Tears of Residents Surrounding Gaza Another research project, now in its initial stages, is attempting to trace air pollution and smoke ingredients in human tears, indicating the health condition of the individual. “Analyzing tears of Haifa’s residents and residents of communities surrounding the Gaza Strip who were exposed to massive amounts of smoke during a period of field arson, we have already managed to show that their environmental exposure is evident in their tears. We aim to use tears as a sensor, providing noninvasive personal medicine alongside blood tests,” says Dr. Girshevitz. This project is being launched in the laboratory of Prof. Dror Fixler, Head of BINA, for Advanced Light Microscopy at The Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering with the collaboration of Prof. Nitza Goldenberg-Cohen, MD, Director of the Ophthalmology department at Bnai Zion Medical Center and associate professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, both in Haifa. “In addition to the analysis services we provide for all of BINA’s labs and many scientific and industrial laboratories across the nation and worldwide, we also use this state-of-the-art machinery to implement ions inside materials, to modify their physical and chemical properties. We constantly improve its capabilities and applications, maintaining BINA’s supremacy in the field,” concludes Dr. Girshevitz. These projects have sparked the interest of the Interpol and police forces in Israel and abroad, including a VSHFLDO DJHQF\ WKDW ȴJKWV WKH ΖWDOLDQ 0DȴD 21