Technion in the World – PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2018

Bringing NY Back to the Future

September 2017 saw the historic inauguration of a global campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Over 500 guests were present for the official opening of the innovation hives of the future: Cornell Tech and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. Guests included Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Cornell University President Martha Pollack and Technion President Peretz Lavie.

“It’s ambitious — it was almost an audacious dream when we started,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “In many ways, this project helps bring New York City back to the future,” said project visionary Michael Bloomberg.

President Peretz Lavie recalled thinking the Israeli institute had a slim chance of winning the bid. “Since we have such a slim chance of winning — be wild,” he recalled telling the Technion team. “Use your imagination, think outside the box.”

Elucidating Experience

“Vision is perhaps our greatest strength… it has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries, it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown.” – Li Ka-shing

The Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) was officially inaugurated in December 2017 in Shantou, China. GTIIT is an historic partnership between the Li Ka Shing Foundation, the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Shantou Municipal Government and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It will train an elite cadre of scientists and engineers, and will also promote cooperation between Shantou University and Technion.

GTIIT Opening president's report 2018
(L-R): Mayor of Shantou Zheng Jiange, Technion President Peretz Lavie, Director of the Li Ka Shing Foundation Richard Li, GTIIT Vice Chancellor Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover, Consul General of Israel in Guangzhou Nadav Cohen, Vice-Governor of Guangdong Province Huang Ningsheng, Former Governor of Guangdong Province Zhu Xiaodan, Honorary Chairman of the Shantou University Council Li Ka-Shing, Secretary of the CPC Shantou Chen Liangxian, GTIIT Chancellor Li Jiange, Chair of Planning Committee Yaffa Zilbershats, STU President Jiang Hong

The new campus covers 100,000 square meters and includes 13 buildings, 29 classrooms, 14 teaching laboratories and 55 research laboratories. Six buildings serve as dormitories for students and faculty. GTIIT is expected to train approximately 3,000 students in its first decade, including 300 postgraduates. In the current academic year, there are already 216 students studying at GTIIT.

GTIIT Playing Football Jogging with Jumpers President's report 2018

“China offers Technion a broad platform to realize its academic excellence. We in turn must learn from Technion and Israel as to what innovative thinking is.” said GTIIT Chancellor Li Jiange at the festive ceremony.

Guangdong Technion it

Guandong Technion IIT

First Technion-Shantou University Workshop on Recycling of Materials and Environmental Protection, November 2016

Alex Bronstein

Among the new faculty members welcomed at Technion this year is Prof. Alex Bronstein of the Faculty of Computer Science. Bronstein is an alumnus of the Technion Excellence Program.

Long-term Technion friends will remember Alex and his brother Michael as the identical twins who presented a 3D face recognition research project in the aftermath of 9/11, which was so precise that it could differentiate between them. Under the mentorship of Prof. Ron Kimmel, Bronstein was co-inventor of a 3D sensing technology that was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2012 and distributed under the RealSense™ brand.

Swarm satellites

AEROSPACE 1ST

The Center for World University Rankings, initiated in Saudi Arabia and headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, ranked Technion first in the world in aerospace engineering in 2017. The inaugural subject rankings feature the top global universities in 227 subjects covering all academic disciplines in the sciences and social sciences.

Prof. Simone Englender

BRAIN THRESHOLD

Technion Prof. Simone Engelender and Harvard Medical School Prof. Ole Isacson say the toxic protein behind Parkinson’s disease may not spread like an infection from nerve cell to nerve but rather that the protein, called alpha-synuclein, may simultaneously affect all parts of the nervous system inside and outside of the brain. They describe this game-changing insight as “threshold theory” of Parkinson’s for the first time in a report recently published in Trends in Neuroscience.

PRESIDENTIAL PIZZA

Held at the initiative of the student union, Technion students tasted the full endorsement of Italian cuisine direct from their President. According to the student union, the pizza party was a welcome break from a period of intense studies, charging the dietary batteries for the next wave of concentrated excellence.

MEDICAL CANNABIS

A Technion MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) targets health professionals, caregivers, and patients with knowledge and clarity on the subject of medical marijuana for pain control.

World pain expert Prof. Elon Eisenberg, of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, is pioneering the course. “The course provides coherent information for healthcare providers – as well as for a broad audience,” explains Ronit Lis-Hacohen.

Nobel square

THINGS LIKE NOBEL PRIZES

Times Higher Education analysis reveals the institutions with the most affiliated Nobel prizewinners this century. Technion is the only university outside the US to make the top 10.

In 2004, Technion became home to Israel’s 1st Nobel Prizes in the science. Since then the Technion Nobel legacy has continued, with the 2011 and 2013 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry.

The Nobel Laureates Square was inaugurated on April 2, 2017 in the Ramat Almogi neighborhood of Haifa in honor of Technion’s laureates, Distinguished Profs. Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover, and Dan Shechtman.

JAPAN@TECHNION

An Israeli – Japanese conference on regenerative medicine and stem cells was held at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in March. This was followed in May by a visit of Japan’s Minister of Science, Technology and Space Yosuke Tsuruho. “Israel and Japan share a common vision of developing advanced technology for the benefit of humanity,” said the Minister.

Lauding Lauder

TECHNION LAUDS LAUDER!

Many more Technion students – the fuel of Israel’s future – will be at home with all mod-cons at Technion with the construction of the new Undergraduate Student Village. The green and central location includes four nine-story buildings with 116 apartments and 488 beds.

The new student village construction was spearheaded by a gift from Ronald S. and Jo Carole Lauder.

“The significance of these dormitories reaches far beyond the materials with which they are being constructed,” said Ronald S. Lauder. “These dorms will help the Technion recruit and retain the very best students, who are the lifeblood of the university. They are an investment in the future that will reinforce the university’s role as the place for future innovators whose work benefits us all.”

Black hole winds

WINDS OF TIME AND SPACE

Insight deepens into the winds around black holes, as a result of research from Technion’s Prof. Ehud Behar and Prof. Keigo Fukumura from James Madison University. The scientists observed that the magnetic field created around a black hole plays a major role in the creation of the accretion disk and the winds it diffuses.

CONDUCTING THE FUTURE

Philanthropist Mortimer Zuckerman has launched the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program, a transformative initiative designed to support future generations of leaders in science, technology, engineering and math in the United States and Israel.

In January, 2017 Mortimer B. Zuckerman was honored at the official residence of the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin for his STEM initiative.