From Israel

Immigrant Computer Scientists

Episode 27: Three distinguished technologists share their experiences of growing up in Israel, of immigrating reluctantly to the US, of fighting in wars, and differences in culture. Three guests who include a Gödel Prize winner, 2 ACM Fellows, 2 AAAI Fellows, 2 AAAS Fellows, a MacArthur (Genius) Grant winner, and a cancer survivor. Featuring: Tal Rabin (Prof, UPenn and Algorand Foundation), Moshe Vardi (Prof, Rice U.), Regina Barzilay (Prof, MIT). Topics include: Kibbutz upbringing, ancestry, persecution, war, language, culture, research beginnings that are chance, computing in 1960s/70s/80s, surviving cancer, impostor syndrome, and alternate life paths.

פרקים

1. From Israel (00:00:00)

2. Act 0 - Introduction to Episode, Guests, and Israel Background (00:02:07)

3. Act 1 - The Kibbutz (00:14:11)

4. Regina Barzilay: Immigrating from Moldova to Israel, and a Kibbutz (00:14:53)

5. Moshe Vardi: First 13 years of life in a Kibbutz (00:18:27)

6. Act 2 - Parents (00:29:38)

7. Tal Rabin - Influence of her Mother (00:30:20)

8. Regina Barzilay - Immigrant Jobs in Israel in 1990 (00:34:55)

9. Moshe Vardi - Almost becoming a Rabbi (00:36:14)

10. Act 3 - Persecution (00:39:00)

11. Moshe Vardi - Parents in Hungarian Holocaust (00:39:28)

12. Regina Barzilay - Systematic Anti-Semitism in Moldova (USSR System) (00:40:42)

13. Act 4 - War (00:48:47)

14. Moshe Vardi - On the frontlines of 2 wars (00:50:10)

15. Tal Rabin - An Officer in the Israeli Army (00:55:49)

16. Act 5 - Language and Culture (01:03:26)

17. Tal Rabin - On language (01:03:47)

18. Moshe Vardi - On language and Israeli interaction styles (01:06:24)

19. Regina Barzilay - On language and foreigner accents (01:12:10)

20. Act 6 - The Reluctant Immigrants (01:22:34)

21. Tal Rabin - And her then-husband (01:23:12)

22. Moshe Vardi - And his Relationship (01:27:15)

23. Regina Barzilay - The Housewife Programmer (01:28:24)

24. Act 7 - It’s a Chance I Started This Research (01:30:55)

25. Tal Rabin - A Random Problem from her advisor (01:31:38)

26. Regina Barzilay - Forced to do a thesis (01:34:49)

27. Moshe Vardi - A Random Paper in a Seminar (01:37:58)

28. Act 8 - Computing in 1960s, 70s, and 80s (01:40:26)

29. Moshe Vardi - When Punched Cards became obsolete (01:40:56)

30. Tal Rabin - Email in 1980 was Monitored! And doing Computer Science on Pen and Paper. (01:46:19)

31. Act 9 - Adversity, Cancer. Regina Barzilay. (01:50:09)

32. Act 10 - Impostor Syndrome and Comparisons (02:05:21)

33. Regina Barzilay - A Most Unique Philosophy for Impostor Syndrome (02:06:16)

34. Tal Rabin - Her Famous Father (02:08:22)

35. Act 11 - Alternate Realities (02:13:21)

36. Tal Rabin (02:13:40)

37. Moshe Vardi (02:14:50)

38. Regina Barzilay (02:19:34)