Professor Ruth Kark was awarded the Israel Prize in the field of geographical research and knowledge of the Land of Israel. Kark is a professor in the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has written and edited 30 books and published 200 articles. Her research focuses on the cultural, settlement, and land history of the Middle East. She has also dealt with the comparative historical geography of the Bedouins in the Middle East and Palestine/Israel.