In this article, the author features Ben Gurion University of the Negev, which was established in 1969 in Beersheba, the south's largest city, with a self-proclaimed double mission: to educate students and to help solve the many problems that have plagued the communities that surround it. While it is clear that one university cannot solve the region's economic and social problems, Ben Gurion is making an impact. Over the past five years, a handful of technical colleges have opened their doors in Negev, but Ben Gurion remains the region's first institution of higher education--its only university, its biggest employer, and one of the Negev's main engines of change. One of the major forces behind Ben Gurion's push to do bigger and better things is the university's president, Rivka Carmi, a geneticist and a former dean of the medical school. The author also describes the "Negev Initiative," a $3.6-billion project by the government within which the university receives $30-million toward a $90-million research fund at its National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev.