Avi Besser

Avi Besser was born in 2000 in Dimona

Avraham (Avi) Besser was born and raised in Dimona. He went to Lehman High School in the city.

He earned a bachelor's degree in behavioral sciences, a master's in psychology and a doctorate at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His doctorate, finished in 2000, studied dependency, self-criticism and depression in the move to motherhood. In 2002 he did postdoctoral work at York University in Toronto.

He served in the Air Force in the air defense array. He serves as a mental health officer in the reserves.

His research covers personality and social psychology, with a focus on risk and resilience factors for depression. He has also studied perfectionism, humor styles, suicide, post-traumatic stress and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on students and lecturers. From 2014 he served as vice president for academic affairs at Sapir Academic College, where he led the accreditation of its departments.

In 2019 he became head of the Department of Communication Disorders at Hadassah Academic College. In 2022 he joined the Council for Higher Education, and in 2024 he became chair of its committee for appointing professors in social sciences, management and law. He is married with 2 children and moved from Dimona to Jerusalem.