Bronickis Receive Israel Prize

The Technion congratulates Yehuda and Yehudit (Dita) Bronicki, founders of Ormat Technologies, visionaries, activists, and leaders of Israeli industry, on being named recipients of the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Industry. The Technion is proud of the Bronicki’s immense contribution to Israeli industry and society.

Yehuda and Dita Bronicki (center) with the heads of the Technion Bronica Entrepreneurship Center

Yehuda and Dita Bronicki (center) with the heads of the Technion Bronica Entrepreneurship Center

The Bronickis are longstanding supporters of Technion’s vision of education and entrepreneurship for the next generation of Israel’s technological innovators. In 2006, the couple donated the Bronica Entrepreneurship Center in the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management in order to enrich the Technion’s culture of entrepreneurship while supporting local industry. The center provides assistance to startup companies founded by Technion students and alumni. A unique combination of knowledge-based academic education, practical experience, and ties with industry leaders provides Technion students with the tools to develop their ideas, start their own companies, and promote innovative ideas within large, established corporations. The BizTEC program, operated by the Entrepreneurship Center, has backed more than 130 startups, which raised more than $300 million in investor funding. More recently, Yehuda and Dita Bronicki provided additional scholarships for students developing hardware-based ventures.

Yehuda Bronicki is a member of the Technion Board of Governors and both he and Dita have dedicated countless hours to helping students who are starting out as entrepreneurs.

In 2007, Yehuda and Dita Bronicki received honorary doctorates from the Technion for their contributions to “the development of the high-tech tech industry in Israel and the advancement of innovative technologies for energy production from using renewable resources — from solar power to agricultural waste.”

Yehuda Bronicki grew up in Drohobych, a city not far from Lviv in present-day Ukraine. He met Dita, a native of the Borochov neighborhood in Givatayim, in the early 1960s at the traditional Jerusalem March. Together they founded Ormat Technologies in 1965, which developed electricity generation turbines and other energy innovations. According to Yehuda, “at the time, everyone was talking about the fact that Israel had no oil and needed energy, so my wife Dita and I sold our apartment in Jerusalem and started Ormat.” The couple played a major role in nurturing the generations of technology entrepreneurs that helped Israel become the Startup Nation. They built Ormat into a global company that now employs 1,200 people and is valued at over $.5 billion.