Meet our newest Ph.D. graduates!

On May 23, 2022, the Technion awarded 212 Ph.D. degrees to its latest cohort of doctorates in a moving ceremony hosted on campus and attended by friends and family of the graduates. Professor Oded Rabinovitch, the Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, opened the event with his remarks, followed by words from the Dean of the Graduate School Professor Dan Givoli. The ceremony was moderated by Professor Irad Yavneh of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science and the Director of the Samuel Neaman Institute.

Technion Senior Executive Vice President Oded Rabinovich expressed words of thanks “to the families, parents, partners, friends and children, and to all those who without your support, these achievements would not have happened.” He went on to say that “the nature of innovative, deep, leading, and groundbreaking research is that it is difficult to identify the final chord. You probably know better than all of us that every research question that is answered, generates at least three or four new questions. None of these give a sense of completion or closure. On the contrary, the final chord of the doctoral dissertation is an opening chord to a world of professional research that invites curiosity and a striving for truth, realizing your ability to delve into a complex and complicated problem and break through it, and harnessing your ability to face the real challenges facing society. All of this turns that elusive doctoral graduation chord into the opening chord of a wonderful path, through which you as newcomers join the family of doctoral graduates at the Technion. We wish you luck!”

Dean of the Graduate School Prof. Dan Givoli continued with his congratulatory remarks, stating, “The two main components of the Technion’s success are faculty and doctoral students. All of you, doctoral students, were one of the cornerstones of the Technion during your studies here and we are proud of you for that – and proud of your future achievements.” Prof. Givoli noted some statistics related to the degree recipients, and wished them well, saying, “The 212 graduates were supervised by 276 advisors. The number of advisors is greater than the number of doctorates because much of the research is interdisciplinary and requires more than one advisor. The youngest graduate is 28 and the oldest is 76 – which shows that it is never too late to start studying for a doctorate. Good luck.”

40% of the graduates are women

This year’s group of doctoral graduates is particularly diverse in both their backgrounds and the range of research fields and specialties. Nearly 40% of the graduates are women, and nearly 45 of the graduates come from international backgrounds outside of Israel including locations such as the former Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia (29), China (7), India (4), and the United States (4). 75 students took the Direct Ph.D. track. The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine leads with the highest number of doctoral graduates (33).

Natalie and Oren Rizansky, who completed their Ph.D. studies in Biology and Mechanical Engineering respectively, spoke at the ceremony on behalf of the graduates. “Studying for a PhD is a rollercoaster with highs and lows and is a herculean task,” they said. “What all graduates have in common is the challenge to discover something they didn’t know before.”

The couple met during military service in the training section of the Combat Engineering Corps. After the army, Oren began studying for a bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion and Natalie attended the Faculty of Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After graduating, Natalie joined Oren in the Technion dorms, and they both began studying at the Technion for a master’s degree that soon turned into a direct doctoral track. In her doctoral dissertation, Natalie, under the supervision of Professor Emeritus Arie Admon from the Faculty of Biology, researched “the identification of mutant and unique peptides in cancer cells,” while Oren researched the mechanical reaction of metal plates under load under the guidance of Professor Danny Rittel from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. While studying for their doctorates, they brought two children into the world, Tomer, who is now 5, and Yuval, who is 3. They are currently expecting their third child.

The oldest graduate to receive their degree was Dr. Rinat Baor, who carried out her research in the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. She said that after working for 20 years as a math teacher and 13 years as a teaching assistant, “I wanted to do a Ph.D., and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to afford it and didn’t have time. The Technion gave me the opportunity to do a doctorate in a faculty with a really nice atmosphere. I received excellent guidance and enjoyed a good relationship with my supervisor, Associate Professor Einat Heyd-Metzuyanim. The research group I joined also helped me develop my research and encouraged Ph.D. thinking.”

In total, 212 Ph.D. degrees were awarded to graduates from all Technion faculties, for their research work across various interdisciplinary fields, including: calculations using an engineered bacterium (Dr. Natalia Berger, under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Ramez), flow in coral reefs (Dr. Shai Asher, under the supervision of Prof. Uri Shavit), assessing the accessibility of urban spaces for the visually impaired (Dr. Ahituv Cohen under the supervision of Dr. Sagi Dalyot and Dr. Asia Netapov), research into the development of water waves under wind constraint (Dr. Almog Shani-Zerbib, under the guidance of Prof. Dan Liberzon), from start-up beginnings to entrepreneurial success (Dr. Moran Lazar, supervised by Prof. emeritus Miriam Erez and Prof. Ela Meron-Spektor), biomaterials – complex designs (Dr. Noam Attias, led by Prof. Noam Grubman and Prof. Ezra Tarazi), using diverse sources of information for the re-labeling of drugs (Dr. Galia Nordon, under the guidance of Prof. Benny Kimelfeld and Dr. Kira Radinsky), repairing DNA fragments. Dr. Ines Abu Zahya, led by Prof. Nabieh Ayoub), muscle tissue engineering to increase insulin sensitivity in diabetics (Dr. Margarita Beckerman, under the guidance of Prof. Shulamit Levenberg and Prof. Emeritus Eddy Karnieli), and stretch sensing systems for the development of electronic skin (Dr. Yehu David Horev under the supervision of Prof. Hossam Haick), among many others.