Israel Postal Company Issues a Special Stamp to Commemorate 100 Years to Laying of the Cornerstone for the Technion

The stamp will be launched during the main event in the Technion’s centennial celebrations, in the presence of Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, Mayor of Haifa Adv. Yona Yahav, Chairman of the Board of Israel Postal Company Sasi Shilo, and Director of Philatelic Services Yaron Ratzon

The Chairman of the Board of Israel Postal Company Sasi Shilo said that “the stamp we are launching today salutes the first academic educational institute established in Israel, and one of the most prominent institutes in its field worldwide”. He added that the Technion’s praiseworthy activity has had substantial contribution to the development of the State of Israel’s economy.

Description of the stamp and the First Day Cover

The stamp enfolds within it the past, present and future not only of the Technion, but also of the State of Israel, that has become a science and technology pioneer.

The stamp features a rendering of the building façade, designed by the Jewish-German architect Alexander Baerwald, one of the pioneers of modern Israeli architecture.

Out of the building grows an element developed in the Technion by three professors: Daniel Weihs, Alexander Yarin and Eyal Zussman. It is the prototype of a nano-parachute, whose structure and movement are based on the structure of the dandelion seed and its movement in the air. The nano-parachute is made of nano-fibers, and is in fact a sophisticated detector of airborne toxins. Thousands of nano-parachutes that are dispersed at a site suspected of being contaminated change their color in the presence of toxins, thus allowing to determine the type of toxins and to prevent or mitigate loss of life.

In recent years, the Technion has engaged in nano-technology research in a number of areas: nano-electronics, nano-optics, nano-materials, and their interface with life sciences. This field brings about collaborations between scientists in a variety of disciplines and from different faculties. The element displayed in the stamp is an excellent example of this.

The stamp tab features the invitation to “the cornerstone laying ceremony, on Thursday, 24 Nissan 5672 (April 11, 1912), at 3 pm at the Technikum plot”.

The First Day Cover shows a photo of the Technion building after its completion, along with a rendering of the building. Above them float icosahedrons, bodies taken from the research of Prof. Dan Shechtman of the Technion, the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 2011 for his discovery of quasiperiodic crystals.

The photo seen in the stamp is that of a nano-parachute on the palm of a hand – courtesy of Miki Koren.

The stamp was designed by Naama Tumarkin, Director of the Israel Technion Society.
Denomination: NIS 2.60.