European Grants to Technion Research

21/11/2016

At the Pinnacle of Scientific Research, 15 Technion researchers receive ERC grants from the European Union

The Technion honored 15 faculty members who received ERC (European Research Council) grants at a festive ceremony in October 2016. ERC is the leading scientific grant of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon2020). Scientists from all EU Member States as well as Israel compete for the prestigious grant, the purpose of which is to support the highest quality basic research.

“The 15 grant recipients indicate the breadth of the Technion’s excellence; excellence that is not concentrated in specific faculties but covers a wide range of fields,” said Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie. “The number of grants awarded to Israeli researchers is very impressive.”

Wayne D. Kaplan, Executive Vice President for Research at the Technion, said that: “winning an ERC grant is a tremendous challenge for researchers, not only scientifically, but also logistically, and the fact that Technion researchers won these grants reflects the high level of research at the Technion.”

According to Prof. Hagit Attya, Technion Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, “Research grants are an essential engine for conducting influential and thriving research. Beyond the sum of the grant – which makes it possible to purchase equipment and employ researchers – winning is evidence that the research program strikes a balance between ambition and feasibility.” Prof. Attya told the researchers that they are “the spearhead of research at the Technion, and the fact that some of you have also won teaching awards indicates that there is no contradiction between excellence in research and excellence in teaching.”

Speaking on behalf of all the winners, Asst. Prof. Moran Bercovici, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, noted the unique culture that prevails at the Technion; communication and mutual assistance that promote research excellence and bridges the gap between faculties and disciplines. “The grant provides us with oxygen – enabling us to reach heights in research, along with a safety net enabling us to cross great chasms along the way.” 

Following are the grant winners and their research fields, listed according to the Horizon2020 seniority categories:

ERC Advanced Investigators (established senior researcher category):

  1. Distinguished Prof. Shlomo Shamai (Shitz), Faculty of Electrical Engineering: Cloud Wireless Networks: An Information Theoretic Framework
  2. Prof. David Gershoni, Faculty of Physics: Deterministic Generation of Polarization Entangled Single Photons Cluster States

ERC Consolidator Grants (intermediate category):

  1. Prof. Yonina Eldar, Faculty of Electrical Engineering: Breaking the Nyquist Barrier: A New Paradigm in Data Conversion and Transmission
  2. Prof. Shy Shoham, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering: Advanced holographic optical neural stimulation for vision restoration and basic research
  3. Associate Prof. Nir Ailon, Faculty of Computer Science: Speed-Information Tradeoffs: Beyond Quasi-Entropy Analysis
  4. Associate Prof. Debbie Lindell, Faculty of Biology: Distinct Infection Dynamics and Ecological Success among Closely Related Marine Cyanophages: Why the Differences?

ERC Starting Grants (young researcher category):

  1. Asst. Prof. Avi Schroeder, Faculty of Chemical Engineering: Next-Generation Personalized Diagnostic Nanotechnologies for Predicting Response to Cancer Medicine
  2. Asst. Prof. Josue Sznitman, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering: Unravelling Respiratory Microflows In Silico and In Vitro: Novel Paths for Targeted Pulmonary Delivery in Infants and Young Children
  3. Asst. Prof. Netanel Lindner, Faculty of Physics: Expanding the Topological Frontier in Quantum Matter: from Concepts to Future Applications
  4. Asst. Prof. Moran Bercovici, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: Dynamic Microfluidic Structures for Analysis of Single Cell Systems
  5. Asst. Prof. Reut Shalgi, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine: Cracking the Translation Regulatory Code  
  6. Associate Prof. Emanuel Milman, Faculty of Mathematics: High-Dimensional Convexity, Isoperimetry and Concentration via a Riemannian Vantage Point  
  7. Asst. Prof. Carmel Rotschild, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: New Thermodynamic for Frequency Conversion and Photovoltaics
  8. Asst. Prof. Mirela Ben-Chen, Faculty of Computer Science: An Operator Approach to Tangent Vector Field Processing
  9. Associate Prof. Tomer Shlomi, Faculty of Computer Science: Cancer Cellular Metabolism across Space and Time