Category Archives: כתבות אמצע

The recently published Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) highlights the inclusion of the Technion in the world’s top 100 universities in the overall ranking and in five specific research fields: chemistry, aerospace engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, water resources engineering, and mathematics. The Technion’s placements on the GRAS provide an exclamation point to its strong performance on the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) published earlier this year.

The Technion achieved its highest global rankings in chemistry, placing 32nd worldwide (a sharp rise from 61st in 2023) and 4th in Europe. In aerospace engineering, the Technion ranked 40th worldwide and 12th in Europe.

In Israel, the Technion is the leading university in eight research fields: chemistry, mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics engineering, chemical engineering, nanoscience and nanotechnology, water resources engineering, food science and technology, and aerospace engineering.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said, “The Technion competes globally with universities that are older, larger, and far wealthier. Our consistent presence among the world’s top universities stems from the dedicated work of our academic and administrative staff, students, faculty deans, and leadership. Despite Israel facing prolonged conflict and Israeli academia encountering hostility and boycotts, both Israel and its academia remain strong and determined to pursue excellence. The Technion, which opened its doors more than a century ago, laid the foundation for the emerging State and has consistently pursued a national mission. Today, it plays a crucial role in reinvigorating Israel, its society and economy. This global acknowledgment of the Technion’s excellence motivates us to keep advancing our scientific, technological, educational, and national objectives.”

Research at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry

Dean of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry Prof. Efrat Lifshitz said, “This impressive achievement reflects the outstanding world-class research and excellence of the faculty and its members. The Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion upholds excellence in research and education. This is evident through prestigious awards, memberships in leading international chemistry organizations, editorial positions in prominent international journals, significant research grants, high-impact publications, collaborations with top industries, and training a new generation of scientists and industry leaders. Our diverse and interdisciplinary research attracts brilliant young scientists and faculty members, whose immense contributions advance human knowledge and educate future trailblazing scientists and industry leaders.”

In August, the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) placed the Technion among the world’s top 100 academic institutions and 11th among technological universities. The Shanghai Ranking, conducted by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, is the leading global higher education ranking system. Since 2012 (except for 2020), the Technion has consistently been in the top 100, ranking between 69th and 94th.

The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects now places the Technion in the top 100 in five research fields: chemistry, aerospace engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, water resources engineering, and mathematics.

Click here for the full ranking.

The Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering began the 2024-25 academic year with a significant rise in first-year students. This represents an increase of 25% from last year (2023-24) and around 40% compared to the previous year (2022-23). This year, 128 new students are beginning their studies in the faculty, including 27 women and a record number of military cadets (47). There is also growth in the joint Aeronautics-Physics track, with 23 new students.

Faculty Building

According to the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Daniella Raveh, “The past year has highlighted the critical challenges in the field of aeronautics and their significance for Israel’s security. The world is experiencing an unprecedented revolution in the field of space, with the entry of private initiatives into space launches and flights. In Israel, more than 100 private companies are active in this field. The Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering is the only one of its kind in Israel, and its graduates are leaders in Israel’s aeronautics and space industries. Our students understand they will gain the tools to become aerospace engineers by studying here. They will make a significant contribution to the nation’s defense and become technological leaders in aviation and space.”

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said, “When Iron Dome interceptor fragments fell on the Technion campus during the missile salvos from Iran about a month ago, I watched the numerous interceptions from my office windows and thought with pride that the Technion is likely the only university in the world directly protected by technologies developed by its graduates – Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow system are just a few examples. Graduates from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering have made tremendous contributions to the State.”

The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering was the first faculty to be established on the Technion’s Neve Sha’anan campus in the 1950s. The Faculty trains engineers who fill positions in Israel’s aeronautics and space industries, and its graduates hold senior roles in the field. The establishment of the Faculty was envisioned shortly after Israel’s founding with the support of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who recognized its critical importance to Israel’s security. In 1953, the cornerstone was laid for the faculty building.

Researchers at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion have developed a new chemical process to produce raw materials for the manufacture of polymers, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural compounds. In a paper about the process in Nature Chemistry, the researchers detail how they developed the new process and conducted a computational analysis to explain its mechanisms and key stages. The study was led by doctoral students Alexander Koronatov and Deepak Ranolia, and postdoctoral researcher Pavel Sakharov, under the guidance of Prof. Mark Gandelman.

From left to right: Prof. Mark Gandelman, Aleksandr Koronatov, Pavel Sakharov, Deepak Ranolia

Called triazenolysis, the new process converts alkenes – common organic compounds such as petroleum – into multifunctional amines useful in various research and industrial applications.

The Technion-developed process mimics ozonolysis, a long-established technology used to create molecules with carbon-oxygen bonds. Ozonolysis, developed more than a century ago, is effective at forming carbon-oxygen bonds but does not produce carbon-nitrogen bonds. This is where triazenolysis comes into play, producing carbon-nitrogen bonds relevant to a wide range of applications by cleaving carbon-carbon bonds in olefins (a class of chemicals made up of hydrogen and carbon with one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by a double bond).

Triazenolysis: making amines by breaking olefins. Image credit: Tatyana Savin

The research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

For the full article: click here

The unveiling ceremony. From right to left: Bezhalel (Butsi) Machlis, CEO and president of Elbit Systems; Uzia Galil’s daughters Daniela and Ruth; his widow Ella; former Elbit Chairman Miki Federman; Dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Prof. Idit Keidar; Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan; and Chairman of the Israel Friends of Technion Association Prof. Peretz Lavie

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the Technion inaugurated the Uzia Galil Foyer in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The foyer was named after the founder of Elbit Systems and other companies. The ceremony was attended by Galil’s family and Elbit Systems management including president and CEO Bezhalel (Butsi) Machlis and former Elbit Systems Board Chairman Miki Federman. Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan, Dean of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Idit Keidar, and Chairman of the Israel Friends of Technion Association, Prof. Peretz Lavie, were also in attendance.

The inspiration corner for students in the new entrance hall of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The foyer, which honors the legacy of Uzia Galil z”l and showcases advanced defense technology developed by Elbit Systems, was made possible thanks to support from the Galil family and Elbit Systems. The display in the hall highlights the connection between Galil’s legacy and Elbit products, which are at the forefront of Israel’s defense technology.

Uzia Galil (1925–2021) was an alumnus of the Technion’s Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and one of the founding figures of Israel’s high-tech industry. He was born in 1925 in Bucharest and immigrated to Israel at age 16 as part of the Youth Aliyah movement. In 1943, he was accepted to the Technion, and upon completing his studies, served in the Israeli Navy for many years. After earning a master’s degree from Purdue University, he worked in Chicago on Motorola’s color television development, and upon returning to Israel, rejoined the Israeli Navy as the head of the Electronics R&D Department.

In 1957, Galil joined the Technion as a lecturer and the head of the Electronics Department in the Faculty of Physics, where he developed advanced electronic systems for physical research. In parallel to his work at the Technion, he founded Elron in 1962, which led to the creation of more than 25 technology companies, including Elscint and Zoran. Later, he established the Galil Center for Medical Information and Telemedicine at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, aiming to integrate technology for the benefit of healthcare through the use of advanced systems.

At the ceremony, Galil’s daughter, Ruth Alon, a Technion alumna and high-tech entrepreneur, said: “We always knew and felt that the extended Galil family includes the Technion and Elbit. These were my father’s ‘homes.’ The collaboration between academia and industry was always his vision and mission, and there’s no more fitting place to commemorate and honor him.”

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said, “Uzia was a visionary who contributed greatly to the Technion, to Israeli industry, and society. He was one of the Technion’s most distinguished alumni and a devoted friend of the institution where he received his education. Uzia was a pioneer in many areas, and he laid the foundations for Israel’s high-tech industry. His vision of integrating technology and medicine for the benefit of humanity was ahead of its time. His immense contribution to the Technion as Chairman of the Board of Governors and as a member of the Executive Committee was invaluable. This new entrance hall is dedicated to his legacy – connecting academia and industry and nurturing the future generation of scientists and engineers.”

Bezhalel (Butsi) Machlis, CEO and president of Elbit Systems, said, “A nation that does not know its past has a poor present and an uncertain future. These words by Yigal Allon are reflected in the entrance hall, which was established to honor Uzia Galil’s legacy. The bond between the Technion, its alumni, and Elbit is a strong partnership of collaboration, action, and responsibility for integrating advanced technologies into Israel’s industry. Elbit employees, many of whom are Technion alumni, recognize and act in accordance with Uzia Galil’s vision. His unique character, drive for action, creation, and innovation inspire us – company managers and employees – every day. We are proud to continue his path, committed to preserving and passing on his legacy, and contributing every day to the defense of the State of Israel.”

Prof. Peretz Lavie, former Technion president, and chairman of the Israel Friends of Technion Association said, “Uzia taught us that innovation and entrepreneurship are more than just technical skills – they are a way of thinking, a belief in the power of ideas to change the world. Uzia was not just a leader but a mentor for those who worked with him. He believed in people’s potential as much as he believed in the potential of technology. That’s why the Technion was so close to his heart. He believed wholeheartedly in the connection between academia and industry, and he expressed this belief in almost every meeting of the Technion’s Executive Committee, where he served for many years.”

In 1977, the Technion awarded Galil an honorary doctorate. In 1980, he became the first Technion graduate to serve as Chairman of the Board of Governors, a position he held until 1990. In 1997, he received the Israel Prize for his contribution to the development of Israel’s high-tech industry and the prestigious Technion Medal that same year.

An experimental setup built at the Technion Faculty of Physics demonstrates the transfer of atoms from one place to another through quantum tunneling between optical tweezers. Led by Prof. Yoav Sagi and doctoral student Yanay Florshaim from the Solid State Institute, the research was published in Science Advances.

Prof. Yoav Sagi

 

The experiment is based on optical tweezers — an experimental tool for capturing atoms, molecules, and even living cells using an optical potential created by laser beams focused to a micron-sized spot. How is this possible? The interaction of light with matter generates a force proportional to the intensity of the light. This force is too weak to affect our daily lives, but when it comes to tiny particles such as atoms, it can be strong enough to hold them in place or move them from one location to another. The invention of optical tweezers, which have become a significant tool in physics, earned physicist Arthur Ashkin the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

Yanay Florshaim

The Technion researchers used a linear array of three optical tweezers in their experiment. By changing the distances between each pair of adjacent tweezers, they dynamically controlled the tunneling rate of atoms between them. Tunneling is a phenomenon unique to the quantum world, where particles have a chance to pass through a potential barrier they cannot classically overcome. By controlling the tunneling rate, the researchers were able to smoothly and efficiently transfer atoms between the two outer tweezers.

A scan of the efficiency of atomic transfer. The horizontal axis represents the time difference between two pairs of tweezers arriving at their closest point, and the vertical axis represents the minimum distance. The color indicates the transfer fidelity

In addition, the researchers showed that although the atoms move between both sides of the chain, the likelihood of finding them in the middle tweezer is very low. This intriguing feature of the transfer scheme can be understood by recalling that in quantum theory, a particle is described by a wave packet. In the scheme demonstrated in the experiment, the waves interfere destructively in the middle trap, making it impossible to find the atoms there. This is the first demonstration of this transfer method, and the researchers believe it could represent a significant milestone in the development of new quantum platforms.

The research is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), the Pazy Foundation, and the Helen Diller Quantum Center at the Technion.

Click here for the paper in Science Advances

Illustration of the black hole in the NGC 4151 galaxy

 

XRISM, an X-ray telescope designed to facilitate discoveries about the evolution of galaxy clusters and the extreme space-time around black holes, was launched into space in September 2023. Prof. Ehud Behar of the Technion Faculty of Physics, an expert on X-ray observations from space, is part of the XRISM mission’s core science team. His team, which includes Technion PhD students, has been leading the analysis of several key XRISM observations in its first year of operation.

In September, a media briefing was held in Japan about the mission’s main achievements:
• Discovery of the 3D structure of the N132D supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, and detection of iron at very high temperatures. The remnants, created by an explosion that occurred about 3,000 years ago, provide an unprecedented window into the lives and deaths of massive stars. XRISM’s observation revealed that – contrary to the prevailing hypothesis that the remnants of N132D are spherical – they actually have a tubular (or donut) shape, expanding at a speed of 1,200 kilometers per second. The supernova explosion produced iron, and the resulting shock waves heated it to extremely high temperatures – around 10 billion degrees Celsius.

• Discovery of the structure surrounding the supermassive black hole in the NGC 4151 galaxy, located about 62 million light-years away from us. XRISM’s observations provide unprecedented insights into the material surrounding the black hole at the center of the galaxy, which has a mass 30 million times that of the Sun. Specifically, the observations show the reflection of X-rays from gas in the accretion disk around the black hole, which spins at speeds of up to 15,000 km/s. These discoveries offer new information about the growth of black holes influenced by the surrounding material.

Analysis of data on the black hole NGC 4151 (Photo: Japanese Space Agency, European Space Agency)

XRISM has two primary scientific instruments: Resolve, a high-resolution spectrometer that can measure the energy (color) of X-ray photons to unprecedented precision; and Xtend, an X-ray imaging camera. According to the XRISM website, “At first glance, the Universe seems barren, a place cold, dark, and empty. But the Universe as revealed in X-rays — faint thought they are — paints a different picture. Hot plasmas at millions of degrees. Jets emanating from black holes. Ultra-high energy particles traveling at speeds surpassing 99% of the speed of light.”

The Resolve spectrometer makes precise measurements of the “color” of X-rays, a capability that makes it the primary instrument of the XRISM mission. “The fireworks that decorate the summer skies come about when different chemical elements are made to glow hot. Each metal responds to heating by emitting its own distinctive color.”
Using Resolve, the scientific community can map the elements in our Universe and, based on these data, discover a wide variety of facts in three main domains: (1) the kinematic “blueprint” for galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the Universe; (2) the “recipe for producing chemical elements in the Universe”; and (3) “the edge of space-time around black holes.” by studying matter just before it falls into black holes, or is ejected at enormous speeds away from it.”

According to Prof. Behar, “The Resolve spectrometer is a technological revolution. Its sensor is made of superconducting pixels that are kept at a low temperature. Every X-ray photon that hits a pixel raises the temperature and changes its electrical properties, enabling the system to measure the photon’s energy with unprecedented precision. Resolve has been operating in space for a year now, giving us a new wealth of information about the astrophysical sources the telescope is observing. It helps us map important phenomena in the universe and, based on our observations of them, understand dynamic processes related to the formation of elements and the evolution of cosmic structures. This is a very exciting project, and we are inundated with new data coming to us daily from space via XRISM.”

XRISM is a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA). Prof. Behar is the only researcher on the telescope’s science team who is not from any of the countries in which these entities are located. He was personally appointed by the director of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. XRISM’s design incorporates lessons learned from previous Japanese telescopes decommissioned at various stages due to malfunctions. The XRISM mission aims to ensure continuity in X-ray observations — a continuity that could have been disrupted by the time gap between previous X-ray telescopes and the ATHENA telescope, which is not expected to be launched before 2035. XRISM will be the only telescope of its kind for at least the next 13 years. This will ensure the observational continuity required for expanding our understanding of astrophysical phenomena.

A new and exciting field has emerged in the hardware domain in recent years: in-memory computing. The in-memory computing approach introduces a significant change from the way computers typically operate. While traditionally the CPU runs calculations based on information stored in the computer’s memory, with this innovative approach, some operations are performed directly within the memory, reducing data transfers between the memory and the CPU. As transferring data between computer units is time- and energy-intensive, this change leads to significant savings in both.

Recent decades have seen dramatic improvements in the performance of these two components; the calculation speed of processors has skyrocketed, as has the storage capacity of memory units. These developments have only exacerbated the problem, with data transfer becoming a bottleneck that limits the computer’s overall speed.

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering has dedicated the past few years to finding solutions to “the memory wall problem”— the problem of computations requiring two separate hardware components. In papers published in recent years, he has presented hardware technologies that enable some operations to run in memory, mitigating the “traffic jams” created between the processor and memory in conventional computers.

This paradigm shift in computer architecture has groundbreaking applications in many fields, including artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, finance, information systems and more. Unsurprisingly, many research groups in academia and industry are working on this issue: looking into memory architecture, researching the production of innovative memory units in chip factories, and studying the basic computational operations that would take place in a computer designed with an in-memory-computing approach.

However, one crucial aspect of this approach has been almost entirely unexplored until now: software. For decades, computer programs have been written for “classic” computers, the fundamental structure of which has barely changed since the very first computers in the 1940s. These programs are collections of read and write operations taking place in the computer’s memory, and computational operations performed by the processor. The units of information stored in the memory have addresses that enable software to locate and transfer them to the CPU for processing.

“With some computations now handled by the memory, we need new software,” explains Prof. Kvatinsky. “This new software has to be based on new instructions that support in-memory computations. This new computation method is so different from the conventional one that it renders some of the existing building blocks of computer science unusable. Therefore, we need to write new code, which requires a lot of time and effort from software developers.”

Ronny Ronen

A new article by Prof. Kvatinsky’s research group, led by Ph.D. student Orian Leitersdorf in collaboration with researcher Ronny Ronen, presents a solution to this problem. Their new platform uses a set of commands that bridges the gap between in-memory computing solutions and popular programming languages like Python. To build this new platform, the researchers developed a theory for the programming interfaces of in-memory computing architecture and created software development libraries that convert Python commands into machine commands executed directly in the computer’s memory.

They call this new concept PyPIM — a combination of the abbreviation for Python and the acronym for Processing-in-Memory. With this new platform, software developers will be able to write software for PIM computers with ease.

Illustration from the paper

The researchers have also created a simulation tool for developing hardware and measuring performance, allowing developers to estimate the improvement in code runtime relative to a regular computer. In their paper, the researchers demonstrate various mathematical and algorithmic computations performed using the new platform, with short and simple code, resulting in significant performance improvements.

The new research was presented at the IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, one of the most important conferences in the field of computer architecture, which took place this week in Austin, Texas.

Orian Leitersdorf

Orian Leitersdorf, 21, is soon to be the Technion’s youngest-ever Ph.D. graduate and is a graduate of the Technion Excellence Program.  Ronny Ronen is a senior researcher in the faculty, Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky is a faculty member and head of the Architectures and Circuits Research Center (ACRC).

Click here for the full paper.

Prof. Sznitman grew up in Switzerland and the United States. He holds degrees from MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ETH Zürich and is perhaps best known for his contributions in research areas spanning pulmonary drug delivery, inhalation therapy, respiratory flows, and biomechanics.

Prof. Josue Sznitman

Prof. Sznitman initially joined our faculty in 2010 and previously served as associate dean for undergraduate studies in the BME Faculty and was the director of the Norman Seiden Multidisciplinary Graduate Program in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology.

Today, he joins the Technion leadership as the youngest dean on campus! His leadership will undoubtedly propel us toward new heights in research, education, and industry collaboration. We look forward to the exciting developments and achievements under his guidance!

Prof. Emeritus Alon Gany has been selected to receive the 2025 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Wyld Propulsion Award. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding achievements in developing or applying rocket propulsion systems and is sponsored by the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical Committee (EPTC), Hybrid Rockets TC (HRTC), Liquid Propulsion TC (LPTC), Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion TC (NFFPTC), and Solid Propulsion TC (SPTC).

The Wyld Propulsion Award Committee honored Prof. Gany for his “pioneering contributions in propulsion research on metalized propellants, energetic materials, hybrid rockets, ramjets, and scramjets, with sustained excellence in educating generations of propulsion experts.”

Prof. Emeritus Alon Gany

Prof. Gany responded, “This is a significant honor, and I am excited to receive the award. My entire academic life has been dedicated to research and teaching in the field of rocket propulsion specifically, and high-speed aeronautical propulsion in general. I appreciate the contributions of every student, scientist, and engineering team member who has worked with me over the years. The award, given by the world’s leading aeronautical society, reflects the highest level of recognition and appreciation.”

Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Prof. Daniella Raveh, remarked, “We congratulate Prof. Gany on receiving the prestigious Wyld Propulsion Award. His decades of groundbreaking research and commitment to training future generations of aerospace engineers and scientists make him a deserving recipient. Prof. Gany helps our department achieve its mission of becoming a world-class academic hub for aeronautics and astronautics, dedicated to creating, expanding, and sharing knowledge in aerospace sciences and engineering.”

About Prof. Alon Gany
Prof. Alon Gany is a Professor Emeritus at the Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. He has had a distinguished career, holding leadership roles such as the academic/planning advisor and head of the Sylvia and David I.A. Fine Rocket Propulsion Center, and managing the Propulsion and Combustion Laboratory. Prof. Gany’s research spans various areas of aerospace propulsion, including rocket, ramjet, and scramjet propulsion. His work has led to over 150 refereed journal publications, 22 book chapters, 20 registered patents, and numerous prestigious awards for research and education. Additionally, he is an international member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a Fellow of several esteemed engineering institutions worldwide.

Prof. Gany’s contributions continue to shape the future of aerospace propulsion and inspire and educate the next generation of aerospace engineers.

In a ceremony in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Technion community gathered to commemorate the terror attack and the war that ensued.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan at the ceremony

The memorial prayer for the victims was read by Professor Emeritus Joseph Itzkovitz-Eldor from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Prof. Itzkovitz-Eldor lost his grandson, Staff Sergeant Adi Eldor, a soldier in the Maglan Unit who fell in Khan Yunis in February.

Prof. Emeritus Joseph Itzkovitz-Eldor

During the event, Tamir Steinman, a news reporter from Channel 12’s southern bureau, gave a lecture titled “The Boy with His Finger in the Dike.” Steinman is a recipient of the Outstanding Journalist Award and the Hero of the South Medal.

Tamir Steinman, Channel 12 Southern Bureau reporter at the ceremony

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan commemorated the students and alumni who fell and were murdered during the events of October 7 and the subsequent war, including Captain (res.) Amit Chayut from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science, and Captain (res.) Alon Safrai from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, who recently fell in battles in southern Lebanon. He said, “The memorial day for the October 7 massacre and the Iron Swords War encompasses a full chronological year — a year of bloodshed and profound grief, a year of mourning, of death, the memory of those no longer with us, the memory of personal and national trauma that this generation has never experienced before.

“But this tumultuous year will also carry the memory of a new spirit, a powerful spirit that filled hearts and was evident in the field, a spirit of a remarkable young generation. Israeli society rallied its full energy and abilities for defense and assistance on all fronts — on the battlefield, in extraordinary aid initiatives to affected communities, and with inspiring ingenuity in places where the state was absent. The mobilization of the Technion community across all its branches was, and still is, a tremendous source of pride for all of us. We are proud of our thousands of reservists — students, administrative and academic staff, and many others who took upon themselves a civilian ‘call to arms’ and helped those among us whose lives were disrupted, those evacuated from their homes, farmers, soldiers, and other communities. Once again, we proved what we always knew: the mission of the Technion community, its resilience, and its commitment to its members and society as a whole.”

The audience at the event

News reporter Tamir Steinman shared his experiences from October 7. On that day, Steinman went on air as soon as the attack began, bringing the voices from the border communities and expressing the feeling of abandonment that the residents of Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Sderot, Ofakim, and other communities felt that day. He described how he acted as a bridge between the residents, the security forces, and the media, reading the pleas of terrified residents live on air. At the beginning of his lecture, he said, “I am proud to be here today, especially here at the Technion, which symbolizes excellence and striving to reach the highest possible level. It is a place of excellence, where one can not only aspire to reach space but where values and being human are taught. I look at the beautiful faces of the students and alumni — the faces of this beautiful and unique nation — and it gives me hope and optimism. We must all unite and do everything we can to make things better.”

The Technion student band performed the song “Believe” by Idan Raichel at the ceremony.