Category Archives: כתבות אמצע

The A.M. Turing Award, also known as the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” will be granted to Prof. Avi Wigderson, a graduate of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion and a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. The award is an annual prize given by the ACM –  the American Association for Computing Machinery.

In June 2023, Prof. Wigderson received an honorary doctorate from the Technion for “his significant contribution and leadership in the fields of computer science theory and discrete mathematics, including complexity theory, cryptography, expanding graphs, and more; and in gratitude for his long-standing relationship with the Technion, beginning with his undergraduate studies.”

Prof. Avi Wigderson with the President of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sivan

Prof. Wigderson, born in Haifa (1956), completed his undergraduate degree in the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion in 1980. He went on to earn a master’s degree and doctorate at Princeton University. He currently serves as a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles and has won numerous awards and scholarships, including the Alon Fellowship, the Gödel Prize, the Knuth Prize, and the Nevanlinna Prize. Prof. Wigderson is also an author. His book, Mathematics and Computation: A Theory Revolutionizing Technology and Science, makes the field of complexity accessible and explains its connections to computer science theory.

President of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sivan, congratulated Prof. Wigderson and said: “We are very proud of the fact that he is a Technion alumnus with a long-standing connection to our community of researchers. Last year, we conferred on him an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking contribution to a wide spectrum of subjects, from discrete mathematics to complex cryptography. Prof. Widgerson’s winning the Turing Award proves that the world recognizes his seminal contributions. We congratulate him on this huge honor and rejoice together with him.”

Prof. Danny Raz, the dean of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science said: “Prof. Wigderson’s immense contributions to the realms of mathematics and computing have earned him international recognition, including prestigious awards such as the Abel Prize, the Gödel Prize, the Knuth Prize, and the Nevanlinna Prize. Now, his exceptional achievements have led to his selection for the highest honor in computer science, the Nobel Prize equivalent, the Turing Award. Prof. Wigderson serves as a role model for our graduates, embodying the Technion spirit as an alum who, since completing his studies, has dedicated his career to advancing human knowledge. A brilliant researcher in both mathematics and computer science, and at their interface, he is truly deserving of this esteemed award”

From right to left: Prof. Avi Wigderson with the President of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sivan, and the Dean of the Graduate School, Prof. Uri Peskin

Prof. Wigderson spoke on behalf of the degree recipients at the honorary doctorate ceremony, held in June 2023, as part of the Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting and said: “I have no doubt that all of us, the degree recipients, are excited to be here tonight. It is a tremendous honor. I would like to thank the Israeli academia and all the people who contributed to my career – my family, teachers and mentors, students, and postdoctoral researchers. I am grateful to all the academic institutions I have been a part of, with the Technion, of course, being the first: my alma mater. The Technion prepared me well for my academic career. I had excellent teachers here. Here in 1980, I met Edna, who later became my wife, in a class dealing with problem-solving. We fell in love here, and here, in the Technion synagogue, we got married. Here, I also fell in love with my field of study – the theory of computer science. The Technion is a beacon of excellence contributing to the security of the State of Israel and its economy through a pursuit of knowledge and truth through inquiry and reasoning, openness, and collaboration with Israeli and global society. It is important to preserve these values.”

A video filmed on the occasion of the 2023 honorary doctorate ceremony:

Prof. Michael Glickman, dean of the Faculty of Biology, will receive the grant for studying “The origin and impact of impaired ubiquitin signaling in the degeneration of neurons.” Prof. Glickman and his team have developed an innovative model for studying Alzheimer’s disease using nerve cells derived from human stem cells. The research they propose is based on their hypothesis that impairment of the ubiquitin system, which clears cells of damaged proteins, could lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. With the help of their innovative experimental model, the grant will enable the researchers to identify the specific component in the ubiquitin system that contributes to the development of the disease in its early stages and better understand the underlying mechanism. The long-term aim is to develop novel treatments to repair brain damage in Alzheimer’s patients.

Prof. Michael Glickman

Prof. Jackie Schiller from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine will receive the grant for her research on “Dendrites as the main computational units for sustained motor learning in the brain cortex.” At the core of the research: an innovative hypothesis about how the brain manages to retain existing memories while learning new tasks – a challenge that artificial intelligence has not yet solved. According to Prof. Schiller’s hypothesis, these remarkable memory abilities are based on the ability of dendritic branches within brain cortex cells to store large amounts of information simultaneously. Another conjecture by Prof. Schiller is that disruptions in this mechanism are a key factor in various neurological disorders such as those involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Prof. Jackie Schiller

The ERC Advanced Grant is one of Horizon Europe’s most prestigious and competitive grants, providing exceptional researchers with the opportunity to engage in ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that may lead to dramatic breakthroughs. The grants are dedicated to a wide range of research areas from life and physical sciences to social sciences and humanities.

Iliana Ivanova, commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth in the Horizon Europe program, said: “These grants will not only support leading researchers in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but also create some 2,500 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other research staff across Europe. This investment nurtures the next generation of brilliant minds.”

Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council (ERC), congratulated the winners and added: “I am particularly happy to see more mid-career scientists amongst the Advanced Grant winners this year. I hope that it will encourage more researchers at this career stage to apply for these grants.”

A solidarity delegation of faculty members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) visited the Technion campus at the end of March to express solidarity with the Technion and the academic community in Israel. During their tour of the campus, the delegation met with Technion administration and researchers from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science.

MIT-Berkeley Delegation

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan spoke to the delegation about the University’s rapid response preparedness following the events of October 7. The response included including hosting dozens of displaced families, assisting students serving in the military, and establishing a “Mutual Support Center” that included hundreds of volunteers and provided assistance to the Technion community, evacuees and IDF soldiers. In response to the guests’ inquiries about how they could help, Prof. Sivan replied: “It is incumbent upon the presidents of universities in the United States to issue a clear and unequivocal public statement supporting Israeli academia and research collaborations, and opposing boycotts that call for refraining from inviting Israeli researchers to international conferences and publishing their articles.”

The representatives of MIT and UC Berkeley stated that they are working to garner support for Israel through donations and education. “Now more than ever, it is important to increase the presence of Israeli researchers, to create more research collaborations to demonstrate support and to support Israeli advocacy.”

As part of the visit, MIT Prof. Daniel Jackson gave a lecture at the Taub Faculty of Computer Science, demonstrating how certain perceptions generate dramatic innovations in the software world. Prof. Jackson’s book, “The Essence of Software,” in which he presents a completely new approach to software content, was published in 2021.

United States Ambassador to Israel Jacob J. Lew, visited the Technion on Tuesday, April 2, with embassy representatives. The delegation met with Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan; Senior Executive Vice President Prof. Oded Rabinovitch; Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Noam Adir; and Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Prof. Adi Salzberg.

Technion management with the ambassador’s delegation

President Sivan presented the delegation with the history of the Technion and its exceptional impact on the State of Israel. He led them on a tour of the David and Janet Polak Visitors Center and showcased some of the key discoveries by Technion researchers, including those that led to Nobel Prize awards.

Ambassador Lew earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Harvard University and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. He was sworn in as Ambassador to Israel on November 2, 2023, following his service as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, White House Chief of Staff, and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). After leaving the Department of the Treasury, Ambassador Lew served as Managing Partner at Lindsay Goldberg, as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at New York University, and as a faculty member at Columbia University.

Ambassador Jacob J. Lew looks at the Nano-Bible display at the Technion’s Polak Visitors Center

When asked about changes in relations between the Technion and Western academic institutions following the events of October 7, Prof. Sivan responded: “Certainly, some things have changed, but it is too early to determine if these are long-term changes. In any case, difficulties are more noticeable in the fields of humanities and social sciences and less so in the fields that are taught and researched at the Technion. It is important to clarify that it is acceptable to disagree, it is acceptable to have disputes, but it is essential to draw the line where freedom of expression is exploited for incitement. Indeed, the situation today is better in universities where administrations have made it clear that there are red lines.” The Technion President added: “We, the residents of Israel, are currently experiencing very great difficulties, but we are aware of the distress faced by Jews in the United States. It is our duty to be attentive to them and to assist them as much as possible.”

The intense three-day visit was deeply significant and profoundly memorable. “We came to Israel at this time not merely as observers but as pillars of unwavering support for the Technion and unity with the entire nation,” said Mark Gaines, ATS national president.

There were many powerful and inspiring moments. Here are but a few that left an indelible mark on the mission participants.

ATS Solidarity Mission

Student Reservists and Technion Support
Some 3,000 Technion students — 21% of the student body — were called up to serve in the IDF. Many of them spent more than 100 days serving in the army. Some will be going back again soon. Participants heard from a student who, on October 7, was with his family on a kibbutz in the south. Seeing the terrorists, they hid in their house armed only with a kitchen knife. One student talked about barely escaping the site of the Nova music festival massacre and then being called up to serve in the army.

The Technion administration’s biggest concern has been the welfare of the student body, particularly those in the reserves. From day one, the Technion has provided them with financial, psychological, and educational support. Every department has a faculty member coordinating needs. Lectures are recorded. The Technion is doing all it can to address the gaps in the material students miss so they don’t fall behind while protecting Israel.

ATS Solidarity Mission

“As we stood together and witnessed the unprecedented wartime challenges, we were proud to see all that the Technion is doing for the student reservists—as we have been told more than any other university—and hope that our presence sent a resounding message of solidarity and commitment to the Technion,” said Mr. Gaines.

Securing the campus and preparing for a more worrisome war with Hezbollah — where Haifa and the Technion are sure to be a target — is a major priority. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated from the northernmost communities and Hezbollah has already launched more than 2,000 rockets into Israel. There is a common concern that it is not a matter of if, but when a full escalation with Hezbollah will begin.

More than $5.5 million was raised by ATS to support students and secure the campus.

Technion Executive Vice President and Director General Dr. Rafi Aviram explained that the Technion is like a small city of 20,000 people, and it needs to have shelters that people could stay in, potentially for days. The participants toured the Security and Emergency Center with Yoav Geva, the head of Technion security. They witnessed how the campus is monitored and viewed new equipment, including a portable bomb shelter and two new emergency vehicles.

Prof. Uri Sivan, president of the Technion, conveyed his tremendous gratitude for the generosity of ATS supporters. He expressed his concern about anticipated large government budget cuts due to huge wartime costs and security challenges. Just as it always has, the Technion will play a significant role in building the nation’s next chapter and looks to its American partners to help make it possible. “Your help is even more critical than ever,” he said.

In addition to the need to complete major projects that were in the works prior to the war and meet the University’s goals to advance multidisciplinary research in climate change and sustainability, human health, impact technologies, and Israel’s security, the Technion launched a reservist fund to raise $20 million to address long-term fellowships and services for reservist students.

ATS Solidarity Mission

Technion’s Faculty of Medicine
The Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine is across the street from its affiliated teaching hospital, the Rambam Health Care Campus. Mission participants toured the 2,000-bed fortified underground hospital, which functions as a parking garage during peacetime. When Israel is under threat, this space has been designed to become an enhanced medical facility. Following October 7, the extensive transformation was completed in only 24 hours.

They met with faculty and students at the Faculty of Medicine. The dean, Prof. Ami Aronheim, explained the crucial need to train more doctors, given Israel’s physician shortage. The medical school is gearing up to increase its enrollment by 40%. The group visited the Clinical Skills Learning Center, a simulation center with smart mannequins that enables the practice of professional-technical skills. The center has been teaching trauma courses since the beginning of the war to train medical students in lifesaving skills.

Hostages and the Displaced
An encounter with family members of hostages was profoundly moving. The group met with a young man, Dekel Lifshitz, whose grandparents were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His 85-year-old grandmother, Yocheved Lifshitz, was kidnapped by motorcycle. In Gaza, she was forced to walk three kilometers through an underground tunnel in her pajamas. Yocheved was released on October 23, but was unaware of the status of her husband, Oded, who was shot on October 7, and she presumed had died. But he is reportedly a Hamas captive and she and her family are unaware of his condition, and obviously deeply concerned.

Evidence of how families have been displaced was also very apparent. The group stayed at the Dan Carmel Haifa hotel, which was full of families who were evacuated from the north.

The development of cancer is intricately linked to abnormal levels of a unique groups of proteins termed oncoproteins. In “normal” cells, oncoproteins play a crucial role in orchestrating cell growth, cell proliferation, and cell death, thus requiring strict regulation, which is achieved by their rapid degradation. However, through mechanisms that have remained poorly understood, oncoproteins evade the degradation machinery and acquire active resistance to breakdown, leading to cancer transformation and rendering resistance to anti-cancer drugs. The enhanced stability of oncoproteins is critical for the survival of cancer cells, presenting important avenues in cancer research and therapy.

Assistant Prof. Dan Bracha

As part of a collaborative international research project, three scientists from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and two researchers from Germany will investigate the molecular mechanisms that stabilize oncoproteins in cancer. As a potential means to treat aggressive cancers, the researchers will explore new approaches to attack resistance mechanisms. Their ultimate goal is to ensure these proteins are broken down quickly and their concentration returns to normal physiological levels. The group research project has been awarded a grant of 1.6 million euros from the DIP research program for collaborative research between Germany and Israel.

Prof. Amir Orian

The Technion researchers participating in the project are Professor Ashraf Brik from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Professor Amir Orian from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and Assistant Professor Dan Bracha from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. From Germany, the project collaborators include Professor Ivan Đikić from the Goethe University in Frankfurt and Professor Markus Diefenbacher from the Helmholtz Center in Munich.

Prof. Ashraf Brik

In honor of International Women’s Day, on Thursday, March 7 the Technion held a special event with the participation of dozens of female graduate students. The event aimed at honoring female students during this challenging time featured a panel entitled “Keeping All the Balls in the Air.” This was followed by a lecture from Lihi Lapid, wife of former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. The event took place at the David and Janet Polak Visitors Center, initiated by Technion Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Prof. Adi Salzberg.

“This war has proven the central role women play both on the front lines and on the home front – and I have no doubt that each and every one of you has experienced it firsthand,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan at the event’s opening. “I strongly believe in the importance of diversity and gender representation, not only from a social justice perspective, meaning that diversity and representation allow everyone to fulfill their full potential. These values also enable the organization itself and society to fulfill their best. In recent years, we have formed a diverse administration at the Technion with significant female representation, and I have no doubt that it is better thanks to this diversity. It is an administration that reflects a range of opinions and approaches, and therefore understands the campus and its needs better and is capable of leading the organization in the best possible way.

Technion President, Prof. Uri Sivan

“The current reality in the faculty of the Technion is the result of decades of effort to increase female representation – a particularly complex challenge in technological universities. This effort has very encouraging results: 48.8% of new undergraduate students are female. This figure is almost equal to the number of women in the population of Israel. In advanced degrees, female representation reaches 41%. To my delight, the fruits of change are also noticeable in the number of academic staff, and no less importantly, in the Technion’s administration. The Technion’s administration is more diverse, and we have reached a historic peak of eight female deans.”

One of the changes led by the administration, based on the recommendation of a special committee that dealt with the issue, is the appointment of Prof. Salzberg as vice president for diversity and inclusion.

“The place of women in this war is no longer in question,” said Prof. Salzberg. “We’ve seen 40,000 female combat soldiers, fighters, combat support, front-line medics, intelligence personnel, and more. Behind them stands a huge army of women who remained on the home front and ensured that life continued to thrive at home, at work, in massive civilian volunteer efforts, and wherever working hands and a willing heart were needed.” She told the doctoral candidates: “Your success in continuing to engage in research despite the difficulties and despite the abnormal reality is worthy of great appreciation, and therefore I thought it right to mark International Women’s Day together this year and say to you: well done and many thanks.”

Prof. Uri Peskin, dean of the Jacobs Graduate School, told the doctoral candidates: “You are an excellent group of superwomen who combine studies, work, research, and practice, and I take my hat off to you. The percentage of women in advanced degrees is improving steadily, but we continue to think about how to maintain this trend.”

Panel participants from right to left: Naama Cohen, Adina Fried, Rony Ben-Zvi Elimelech, Coral Hamo Goren, and Prof. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus.

Four doctoral candidates from various faculties at the Technion participated in the panel “Keeping All the Balls in the Air.” The panel moderator, Prof. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus from the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, said that her husband, a pediatric neurologist, was called up as a trauma doctor and served for 100 days. “I was left bewildered, with three children aged 8 to 15. As a faculty member, I had to continue managing a very diverse lab with both female and male members, Arabs, Jews, and Druze. In addition to everything else, my research is based on MRI imaging in children, and it’s not easy to find parents and children who will come to campus for such tests at this time. Therefore, even though I am no longer a doctoral student, I am very familiar with your feelings and the level of concentration needed during this time. And most importantly, I embrace you.”

Adina Fried, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, resides in the Technion’s Graduate Student Village. In her doctoral work, she researches models for developing drugs for intestinal diseases under the guidance of Prof. Shulamit Levenberg. “On October 7, I was nearing the end of my maternity leave, with a small baby and a three-year-old child, approaching qualifying exams. My husband and I are both from a special forces unit, and on that Saturday, he immediately went to the base. He recently returned home after 152 days of reserve duty. I was left with two young children, which wasn’t easy, but the thought of returning to the United States, where I was born and where my parents live, never crossed my mind. I requested to postpone my return from maternity leave due to the situation, and Prof. Levenberg fully supported me and strengthened my decision. When the situation stabilized, I took the exams and passed them successfully.”

Doctorate panel, led by Prof. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus

Rony Ben-Zvi Elimelech, who is about to complete her doctorate degree in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, researches mechanisms of retinal nerve regeneration. Additionally, she is the founder and CEO of the Wisemama Mentoring Project, which supports women combining parenthood and academic studies. “At the beginning of October, I was recovering from a very difficult childbirth experience, during which I faced medical challenges resulting from the pregnancy, and when I started to recover, October 7 happened. In the reserves, I am a administration officer in the Air Force, and when I wasn’t called up, I was offended. After I got over my offense, I decided that my role in holding down the home front was no less important. I viewed taking care of my children as a national mission. I returned to research, planned how to progress with my supervisor, and then suddenly, I was called up for reserve duty. I consulted with my supervisor, and she immediately said, ‘Now is not the time to say ‘no’ to reserve duty.’ In the end, I completed 45 days of reserve duty, juggling duties in the lab, managing the organization, and preparing for the opening of another challenging year of our mentoring project for student mothers. I want to thank the Technion and the Jacobs Graduate School for doing everything for the sake of its students.”

Naama Cohen recently began her doctorate studies in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “After watching the initial reports on October 7, which seemed as strange as watching 9/11, the alarm bells rang for me, and I said to my husband, ‘Let’s get ready for reserve duty.’ Indeed, we were both called up immediately – he to the Telecommunications Center and I as an IDF officer in the reserves. The period in the reserves was challenging, but it allowed me to contribute. Since I didn’t find the time or mental space to engage in research, I put the research aside for this period, and during home leaves, I allowed myself to rest. Only in the past month have I tried to return to my routine – I organized documents, reread things, everything needed to return to research and be prepared to continue the Ph.D. I feel that to some extent, this break allowed me to look at the research with a fresh perspective and critique.”

Coral Hamo Goren, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, focuses on integrating machine learning in urban analysis. “When the war broke out, my husband immediately told me ‘You’re an operations officer in the Givati brigade, they need you, I’ll stay with the kids.’ And indeed, I went to reserve duty and I’m still there. At first, I put my doctorate on hold and every home leave was dedicated to the children. Even that wasn’t easy, because at night, I was in the operations room receiving and relaying reports on casualties and injuries, and then I came home to be with them, to comfort them. Only recently did I return to my doctorate and thankfully, the professors and mentors at the Technion understand the difficulty and provide significant assistance. That’s the spirit of the Technion – seeing the person.”

Professor Emeritus Joshua Zak, one of the founders of the Technion’s Faculty of Physics and a recipient of the 2022 Israel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, passed away on March 14, aged 94. Professor Zak led scientific breakthroughs that led to significant applications. He was responsible for numerous achievements in physics, two of which are named after him: the Zak transform, which is used today in signal processing, and the Zak phase, a unique phenomenon in one-dimensional crystals, which he published in 1989 in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. He completed his doctorate at the Technion under the guidance of Professor Nathan Rosen, a student and assistant to Professor Albert Einstein; and Professor Yoel Racah from the Hebrew University. Professor Zak was awarded the prestigious Wigner Medal in 2014 and was elected an honorary fellow of the Israel Physical Society (IPS) in 2018. In 2022, he was awarded the Israel Prize in Physics and Chemistry Research.

Prof. Joshua Zak z”l

Zak was born in Vilnius in June 1929. When he was 12 years old, he was moved to the ghetto with his family and later endured forced labor camps and a concentration camp, where he lost both of his parents and two of his siblings. As a young teenager, he participated in the death march to the west; he was liberated by the Red Army, and immediately drafted into it, before he turned 16. Upon his release in 1948, he returned to Vilnius and began studying at a high school, completing his studies with excellence despite losing many years of study due to the war and military service.

In 1955 he completed his studies in physics with distinction at Vilnius University, and also became a kayaking champion in Lithuania. In the same year he began studying advanced studies in Leningrad. In 1957, he immigrated to Israel, was accepted to the Technion, and continued his PhD studies under the guidance of Professor Nathan Rosen. In 1960, he received a doctorate in science, spent some time at MIT, and then returned to the Technion, where he began teaching at the Faculty of Physics. Ten years later, he founded the Solid State Institute at the Technion and served as its head.

Technion President Professor Uri Sivan said: “Today we bid farewell to a distinguished scientist, one of the pillars of the Faculty of Physics at the Technion and a trailblazer in his field. His research work paved new paths in understanding fundamental phenomena in quantum mechanics and accelerated the development of important engineering applications. Professor Zak is counted among the pioneers who laid the foundations for theoretical physics in Israel. As a faculty member in the Physics Department, I had the privilege of knowing him well and engaging in fascinating scientific discussions with him. Professor Zak’s achievements earned him international recognition, and we were all delighted when he received the Israel Prize for Physics and Chemistry Research in 2022, a prize that he truly deserved.”

The dean of the Faculty of Physics at the Technion, Professor Adi Nusser, said: “Professor Zak was one of the founders of the Faculty of Physics, and one of its leaders. Beyond the quality science that emerged under his guidance, he made a significant contribution to the faculty. Professor Zak made important contributions to the field of physics, which earned him the Wigner Medal and the Israel Prize. Even after his retirement, the Faculty of Physics and its academic quality remained important to him until his last day.  Until recently, he regularly visited the faculty and participated in all activities.”

The Israel Prize was awarded to Professor Zak on the 74th Independence Day of the State of Israel, in May 2022, for “developing mathematical tools such as the ‘Zak transform’ and ‘Zak phase,’ used for interpreting phenomena of electrical conduction in a magnetic field. These tools enable the prediction of materials with unique properties for building electronic devices.” The committee also emphasized that “his scientific contributions serve and will continue to serve in understanding the chemistry and physics of matter.”

2022 Israel Prize ceremony – former Minister of Education Dr. Yifat Shasha-Biton presenting the Israel Prize to the late Professor Joshua Zak. Photographer: Oded Karni / Courtesy

In 2023 the Technion’s Faculty of Physics held a special four-day international conference dedicated to Professor Zak. The conference, which focused on the relationship between topology and physics, was organized by Professors Eric Akkermans and Ari Turner. “Topology, like set theory, is an elegant field of mathematics that allows us to describe geometric shapes anywhere they occur,” said Professor Akkermans. “It’s surprising how dramatic the implications of some of these concepts can be on experiments. The conference, attended by around 200 people, mostly young researchers, brought together many of the leading physicists who creatively contribute to this topological revolution in the physics of condensed matter – a field in which Professor Zak was a pioneer.”

Alongside the scientific sessions, a special session was dedicated to Professor Zak. In this session, his former students recounted his role as a teacher and educator who dedicated much effort to the education of new generations of engineers and researchers, and his colleagues spoke of his groundbreaking work in the topology of condensed matter physics. According to Professor Akkermans: “throughout his career at the Technion, Professor Zak emphasized the importance of a vibrant and active research environment in the faculty to attract talented researchers. At the conference, we succeeded in meeting his criteria for excellence and camaraderie, both in the standard of the invited lecturers, including Nobel Prize laureates, and in the standard of participants. This demonstrated once again that the Technion is a beacon of excellence in physics.”

May his memory be a blessing.

The immune system can be roughly divided into two – the innate immune system, which is the first barrier against disease-causing pathogens, and the acquired immune system, which is activated later and responds in a more targeted manner. Current research conducted by Professor Katrien Vandoorne of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering focused on the innate immune system.

The immune system’s blood cells are produced in the bone marrow, which is situated in the spongy part of certain bones throughout our bodies.

Prof. Vandoorne developed a new technique that makes it possible to track the production of the blood cells in the bone marrow. To do so, she used tiny magnetic particles from iron oxide, which she tracked using various imaging techniques, including in vivo magnetic resonance imaging.

Prof. Katrien Vandoorne of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering

The research, which was carried out on mice, examined the effect of different levels of inflammation on the production of blood cells.

Prof. Vandoorne found that the more severe the inflammation, the larger the number of immune system blood cells that are produced in the bone marrow which absorb more nanoparticles. In other words, the body reacts to infection by producing inflammation – increasing the number of immune system blood cells so that they will react to the infection.

She concluded that bone marrow is not just a “cell factory.” Regarding possible applications, this discovery will enable immune cells to be monitored more precisely.

The study also emphasizes the potential of these nanometric particles for delivering drugs, which would be relevant for a variety of diseases, including cancer, heart diseases and degenerative diseases.

According to Prof. Vandoorne, “We will now be able to offer physicians an efficient tool for the early detection of infections, based on monitoring bone marrow. We believe that this discovery will significantly improve the way physicians diagnose various diseases, which would lead to more personalized and effective treatments.”

Prof. Katrien Vandoorne joined the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering in September 2020, following her academic journey spanning from Ghent University in Belgium, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in veterinary medicine, to a Ph.D. in the Department of Biological Regulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Subsequently, she pursued postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and earned the title of Assistant Professor from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands.