10 Technion Lecturers Awarded the Yanai Award for Excellence in Academic Education

20/12/2012

1The Technion decides that a lecturer who does not meet the standards of good teaching – can no longer teach required courses

The Yanai Award for Excellence in Academic Education has been awarded to ten Technion lecturers. This is the second year that the award is being awarded for significant contribution to the advancement of academic education, “in tribute and appreciation of the exemplary contribution of the academic faculty members to teaching and learning, and for their efforts to strengthen involvement and sense of belonging of students at the Technion”.

The ten faculty members who received the award this year are: Eli Aljadeff, Yoram Halevi, Yoram Tambour, Oded Rabinovitch, Avigdor Gal, Erez Petrank, Uri Peskin, Gitti Frey, Isaac Keslassy and Yoav Arava.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said in the festive ceremony that online academic courses have recently become highly popular. “This is indeed a significant revolution in academic education, but these courses cannot replace the strong bond created between a good lecturer and his student”, Prof. Lavie emphasized. “A good teacher gives of himself, reads the body language of his students, supports and guides them. The consistent thread running among the winners of the Yanai Award is love for the student and love for the profession”.

Executive Vice President for Research of the Technion, Prof. Gadi Schuster, disclosed in the ceremony that the Technion has recently resolved that a lecturer who does not meet the standards of good teaching – can no longer teach required courses. Chair of the Technion Student Association, Assaf Zinger, said in response that he is amazed at this decision of the Technion and is thrilled with it, as it is joyous news for all students.

Moshe Yanai, a worldwide data storage pioneer, said that with his donation he wanted to repay the Technion somewhat in tribute and appreciation of the tools for life that the institute has given him during his studies there forty years ago. Having remembered that period as a difficult and even traumatic one at times, he decided, in consultation with Prof. Lavie, to donate 12 million dollars that will be awarded to lecturers who are excellent educators, thus contributing to students at the Technion.  The award, in the amount of NIS 100 thousand per lecturer, will be awarded over twenty years. “This is the second year that the award is being given, and it is highly satisfying to see how the winners, who are excellent educators as is, seem to stir their colleagues to do the same”, said Mosh Yanai in the ceremony.

Above: The winners with Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie (at the center, to the right of the sign), and with Rachel and Moshe Yanai (at the center, to the left of the sign). Photo: Yoav Bachar, Technion Spokesman.