A high school physics course sparked Shir’s fascination with science and technology. After starting her undergraduate studies in the Physics Department at Bar-Ilan University in 2010, she worked as a summer student in Prof. Eli Sloutskin's soft condensed matter lab, studying the physics of randomly-packed solids. For this work, she was awarded with the annual international Young Scientist Award for 2014 by the LUM company in Germany. Continuing her studies at the lab in the combined MSc–PhD track, she investigated the effects of geometrical frustration in a variety of soft condensed matter systems, ranging from colloidal sediments to the physics of 2D crystals placed on top of emulsion droplets.

 

Since completing her PhD, she has sought to expand her area of expertise to additional scientific fields, in the hope of a career in academia. She intends to start her postdoctoral research at the Laboratory for Nanotheranostics for Personalized Medicine and EnICS Labs in the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, under the supervision, respectively, of Professor Rachela Popovtzer and Professor Alex Fish. Her research will focus on the development of a unique and innovative biological chip, capable of producing real-time detection, diagnosis and treatment of the human microbiome. This work could lead to breakthrough solutions on the issue of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, opening new doors to an innovative, personalized medicine. I am happily married to Amir and the mother of Alon and Gil.