Welcome!

Last month, a festive reception for new faculty members was held at the David and Janet Polak Visitors Center at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Among those in attendance were President Prof. Uri Sivan, Vice President for Academic Affairs Prof. Naama Brenner, Technion management, faculty deans, and the new faculty members.

President Prof. Uri Sivan,

President Sivan greeted the young researchers, saying:
“I was supposed to retire last October, but here I am welcoming you, the new faculty members, as President of the Technion. Your arrival here is symbolic, even poetic – one generation passes, and another arrives, and thus this extraordinary institution continues to evolve. The Technion is a true miracle. It opened its doors exactly 100 years ago with a class of 17 students, including one woman. Over the past century, it has grown into a globally leading technological institution, now home to 15,000 students, about 48% of whom are women. You have joined the Technion family, and I wish you much success. We are all links in a long chain that began at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901 and whose continuation is limitless.”

Most of the new faculty members were born in Israel, with many being Technion alumni. Others hail from the USA, Russia, Italy, and Greece. These researchers cover a wide range of disciplines, including the development of green technologies for energy production from waste, mapping brain mechanisms controlling vision, resolving data transfer bottlenecks, quantum optics, light-matter interaction, intersections of number theory and probability, innovative microscopy methods, sequential decision-making under uncertainty, infectious diseases and prevention, maternal-fetal medicine, surgery and trauma, sports medicine, preoperative anxiety, and brain tumors and their treatment.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Prof. Naama Brenner

Prof. Naama Brenner, vice president for academic affairs, added:
“From the moment you become faculty members, you become leaders for others – students at all levels – and your behavior serves as a model for them. Be critical, don’t fear asking questions, even unpopular scientific ones, and don’t hesitate to express your views. It’s important to us that you become true leaders, leaders of value.”

The new faculty members include: Prof. Vassilis Theofilis, Dr. Ameer Marzok, and Dr. Maxim Freydin (Aerospace Engineering); Dr. Avner Wallach, Dr. Gali Inbal Shainer, and Dr. Maya Maor-Nof (Biology); Dr. Avinoam Bar-Zion (Biomedical Engineering); Dr. Dvir Harris, and Dr. Ofer Neufeld (Chemistry); Dr. Tatyana Bloch, Dr. Huaquan Ying, and Dr. Roy Posmanik (Civil and Environmental Engineering); Dr. Omri Ben-Eliezer (Computer Science); Associate Prof. Ariel Cohen, and Prof. Avinoam Zadok (Electrical and Computer Engineering); Dr. Ofir Gorodetsky, and Dr. Itay Glazer (Mathematics); Dr. Andy Thawko (Mechanical Engineering); and Dr. Gilad Barshad, and Dr. Stefano Recanatesi (Medicine).