Governor of Illinois at Technion

Governor Bruce Rauner and University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen signed a memorandum of understanding for academic research cooperation with the Technion

Left to right: Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner, Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan and President of the University of Illinois Timothy L. Killeen.
Photo credit: Sharon Tzur, Technion Spokesperson’s Office.

A memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the Technion and the University of Illinois was signed at Technion last week. The agreement was signed by Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner and President of the University of Illinois Timothy L. Killeen. “Just as you want to improve the lives of the residents of Israel, we want to improve the quality of life of our residents,” said the Governor of Illinois at the ceremony. “The new cooperation will serve all of us, and the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. We have a very broad common denominator; a long history, an ambitious vision and a desire to advance humanity.”

Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan said: “It is clear that the development of significant technologies is not possible without the broad foundation of basic science. The Technion’s goal is to maintain a balance between basic research and implementation, with the good of the State of Israel being a key component in our research and development strategy.” He presented Technion’s global strategy, centering on the establishment of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York and the Guangdong Technion Institute of Technology, which will be inaugurated in China next month.

After the ceremony, the Governor met with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and other senior Technion officials, including Senior Executive Vice President Professor Adam Shwartz, Dr. Gabriel Shemer of the Business Unit (T3), Prof. Carmel Domshlak of the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Prof. Eli Biham, Head of the Technion Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center.

The University of Illinois System is actually a group of universities and institutes where some 700,000 graduates have studied and more than 80,000 students are currently enrolled. University President Timothy L. Killeen said during the visit: “This MOU pairs two giants of discovery. Like Technion, we strive for excellence. We enjoy economies of scale and you have other advantages, such as the speed at which you translate research into applications and bring products to the market. I have no doubt that all parties involved will benefit from our cooperation.”