Month: November 2017

Three outstanding faculty members win the inaugural Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel

Prestigious awards recognize innovation and excellence of early career scientists and engineers

Jerusalem, November 29, 2017 – The Blavatnik Family Foundation, the New York Academy of Sciences and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (IASH) announced today the 2018 Laureates of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel.

The Blavatnik Awards honor exceptional young scientists and engineers by highlighting their extraordinary achievements, recognizing remarkable promise for future discoveries, and accelerating innovation in their research.  Established in the United States in 2007, the Blavatnik Awards are a signature program of the Blavatnik Family Foundation that are administered by the New York Academy of Sciences.  Awarded in Israel for the first time – in collaboration with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities – three of the country’s most outstanding young scientists and engineers will receive US$100,000 each, one of the largest unrestricted prizes ever created for early-career researchers in Israel.  

From 47 nominees, encompassing Israel’s most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger and nominated by Israeli research universities, a distinguished national jury selected three outstanding laureates, one each from the disciplines of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Physical Sciences & Engineering.

Among the members of the Scientific Advisory Council for the awards are Professor Nili Cohen, President of IASH, and Co-Chairs Professor Aaron Ciechanover, IASH member and Nobel Prize Laureate, and Mr. Ellis Rubinstein, President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences. The selection committee in each of the three prize areas included scientific leaders from Israel and abroad.

The 2018 Blavatnik Awards in Israel Laureates are:

Dr. Oded Rechavi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Neurobiology, Tel Aviv University (Age at nomination: 36)

Dr. Rechavi’s groundbreaking work uncovers novel mechanisms of inheritance – he has shown how acquired traits can be passed to the next generation without changes to the DNA code. His studies can help us to understand how complex traits and diseases are inherited – a first step towards treatments for many diseases where genetic causes have not been identified.

Dr. Charles Diesendruck, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Age at nomination: 37)

Dr. Diesendruck shows exceptional promise in the growing field of “mechanochemistry”, where mechanical force is used to drive chemical reactions or changes. Through these reactions, materials’ properties can be altered, creating smart mechanoresponsive materials.

Prof. Anat Levin, Associate Professor, The Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Age at nomination: 39)

Professor Levin has made ground-breaking contributions to the emerging field of computational photography, which utilize computational techniques to develop novel imaging capabilities that overcome the limits of traditional optical (or other imaging) systems.

“These three exceptional young scientists and engineers exemplify the innovative spirit and remarkable scientific breadth of Israeli academic and research institutions,” said Len Blavatnik, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries and Head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation. “The work of these brilliant researchers will enhance science throughout the world for generations to come.”

Professor Nili Cohen, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, noted that, “the Blavatnik Awards fill the need for recognition and support of young scientists in Israel who demonstrate outstanding merit. The scientific evaluation committees had a challenging responsibility to identify the most exceptional scientific accomplishments among scores of outstanding young Israeli researchers.”

Mr. Ellis Rubinstein, President and Chief Executive Officer at the New York Academy of Sciences, said, “by identifying and supporting the most promising innovators in Israel, these Awards not only will inspire Israel’s children to choose science and technology careers but Israel’s best and brightest will join the Blavatnik Awards’ international community online and in person, forming global collaborations of unprecedented impact. Moreover, through the New York Academy of Sciences’ worldwide network, Israel’s scientific and engineering prowess will become even better known than it is today.”

The inaugural Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel will be honored at a formal ceremony in Jerusalem on February 4, 2018.  The Laureates will join a network of their peers as members of the Blavatnik Science Scholars community, currently comprising over 220 Blavatnik Award honorees from the decade-old U.S. program. Laureates will also be invited to attend the annual Blavatnik Science Symposium in New York City each summer, where the Scholars come together to exchange new ideas and build cross-disciplinary research collaborations.

About The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, honor exceptional young scientists and engineers by celebrating their extraordinary achievements, recognizing outstanding promise, and accelerating innovation through unrestricted funding.

The Awards were established in New York and began as regional awards for young scientists and engineers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists were established in 2014 and are awarded to faculty-rank scientists annually across the United States. To date, there have been over 2,900 scientists nominated from over 280 institutions, with more than 220 recipients from both the Blavatnik Regional and Blavatnik National Awards. In 2017, the Awards were also launched in the United Kingdom, to recognize faculty-rank young scientists and engineers from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

About The Blavatnik Family Foundation

The Blavatnik Family Foundation is an active supporter of leading educational, scientific, cultural, and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and throughout the world. The Foundation is headed by Len Blavatnik, an American industrialist and philanthropist. Mr. Blavatnik is the Founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held U.S. industrial group with global interests in natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, venture capital, and real estate. Among other things, Access Industries owns the Israeli Clal Industries group. For more detailed information, please visit: www.accessindustries.com.

About the New York Academy of Sciences

The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization that since 1817 has been driving innovative solutions to society’s challenges by advancing scientific research, education, and policy. With more than 20,000 Members in 100 countries, the Academy is creating a global community of science for the benefit of humanity. Please visit us online at www.nyas.org and follow us on Twitter at @NYASciences.

About the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is the preeminent scientific institution in Israel. It was established by law in 1961, and acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in all branches of the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The Academy comprises 125 of Israel’s most distinguished scientists and scholars who operate in two sections – the sciences section and the humanities section.

It is tasked with promoting Israeli scientific excellence; advising the government on scientific matters of national interest; publishing scholarly research of lasting merit; and maintaining active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community.

To learn more about this year’s Laureates, go to:

http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/israel-laureates/anat-levin/
http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/israel-laureates/charles-diesendruck/
http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/israel-laureates/oded-rechavi/

Technion 1st Worldwide in Digital Education

Technion leads the world in providing students with digital skills, according to a Times Higher Education survey.

Technion is the world’s leading academic institution in preparing students to take top positions in the digital revolution.  In a recent survey published in Times Higher Education, representatives of global leading companies were questioned on required skills to succeed in today’s labor market. The survey compiled a list of top academic institutions for providing the best digital skills, ranking Technion first. The University College of London (UCL) ranked second; and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) ranked third. The only US academic institute in the top ten was Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in sixth place.

“This is a badge of honor for Technion,” says Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie. “In recent years, Technion has placed considerable emphasis on training its students to meet the changing needs of the digital revolution. As a result, Technion’s interdisciplinary research is expanding and advancing by leaps and bounds, in a process integrating life sciences and engineering. In addition, advanced learning technologies are being implemented, including the introduction of MOOCS courses – massive online open courses in various languages –  and the development of the flipped classroom approach. This approach emphasizes self-study by students using state-of-the-art technology, including augmented reality. In addition, the strengthening of Technion’s global standing, reflected by the Technion branches in New York and China and by strategic partnerships worldwide, helps us attend to the changing needs of global industries.”

The survey’s authors note that global academic institutions are increasingly evaluated according to the employability of their graduates, and that in some places around the world, government support for institutions is linked to graduate success in the labor market.

Hong Kong Salutes Technion

Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to be inaugurated in Shantou next month

On Tuesday, November 21st, the “Technion, China and Israel – Partners in Innovation” gala event took place at the Hong Kong InterContinental Hotel attended by representatives of the Hong Kong SAR government, venture capitalists from Hong Kong and China, industrialists and academia.

The aim of the event was to showcase Israeli high-tech industry; Technion’s central role in its development; the new UG-Technion Technology Fund, L.P.; and Israeli, Hong Kong, Chinese technology transfer partnerships. A video was screened presenting the new UG-Technion Technology Fund as a bridge between academia and industry, an alliance that focuses on identifying and turning innovative ideas into commercial products, which can impact our lives.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie spoke about the Israeli high-tech world and Technion’s role as an engine driving Israeli and global innovation. Speakers included Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover; Guangdong

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Li Jiange; Israel’s Consul General to Hong Kong, Ahuva Spieler; chairman of the Israel-Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Rafael Aharoni, BBS; General Partner of UG-Technion Partners, L.P. and co-founder of United Gain Capital, CY Lau, Technion’s partner in the new venture capital fund; and Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, Invest Hong Kong, Charles Ng.

Ng spoke about the role of Hong Kong in the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at connecting China to Europe, the Middle East and Israel. The Li Ka Shing Foundation was represented by Mr. Frank Sixt.

CY Lau said, “If it’s a good product, we think China is the best place to launch:  a single country, a single language, a single advertising campaign, with a market coverage of 1.4 billion people.”

Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) will be inaugurated next month in China in the city of Shantou. This is a historic partnership between Technion and the University of Shantou. The university was established with the support of the Guangdong Province, the Municipality of Shantou, the Chinese government, and the Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF). Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover will lead the Institute as Vice Chancellor.

Technion Team Wins Discovery Award as Part of Nesta’s £10 Million Longitude Prize

Team Prismatix – a collaboration between Prof. Ester Segal’s research group at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering and clinicians from the Bnai Zion Medical Center – has been awarded with the Discovery Award for their promising developments in rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance.

Team Prismatix developed a technology that provides a determination of antibiotic resistance in less than three hours. Using minimal volumes, bacteria are grown on small photonic silicon chips. Technion Ph.D. student Heidi Leonard, who leads the research effort, explains that “By measuring how light reflects off the surface of these “bio-chips”, we can determine whether bacteria are growing or dying in the presence of certain antibiotics and specific antibiotic concentrations. Importantly, our results are in excellent agreement with existing laboratory techniques.” The preliminary findings and concepts were recently published in the prestigious journal ACS Nano (“Unraveling Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacterial Networks on Micropillar Architectures Using Intrinsic Phase-Shift Spectroscopy.” ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (6), 6167-6177).

In Europe alone, it is estimated that more than four million people per year acquire hospital-associated infections. Determining the correct antibiotic for an infection in a timely manner is critical for both a patient and to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance; however, a typical laboratory workup procedure requires 24 hours to confirm the presence of bacteria, and another 24–36 hours to identify the correct antibiotic to use. In total, the routine hospital lab time can take 1–3 days, during which time incorrect antibiotics may be administered, which can facilitate the growth of resistant strains. It is estimated that by the year 2050, antimicrobial resistance will be the cause of 10 million deaths per year worldwide, surpassing cancer to become the leading cause of death.

In addition to Heidi Leonard, Team Prismatix is comprised of Liran Holtzman, a graduate of the Technion Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering; Prof. Ofer Nativ, chairman of the Department of Urology at Bnai Zion Medical Center; Prof. Sarel Halachmi, vice chairman of the Department of Urology at Bnai Zion Medical Center; Prof. Ester Segal, professor in Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion; and Prof. Leigh Canham, a UK representative from the University of Birmingham.

Governor Bruce Rauner and University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen signed a memorandum of understanding for academic research cooperation with the Technion

A memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the Technion and the University of Illinois was signed at Technion last week. The agreement was signed by Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner and President of the University of Illinois Timothy L. Killeen. “Just as you want to improve the lives of the residents of Israel, we want to improve the quality of life of our residents,” said the Governor of Illinois at the ceremony. “The new cooperation will serve all of us, and the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. We have a very broad common denominator; a long history, an ambitious vision and a desire to advance humanity.”

Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan said: “It is clear that the development of significant technologies is not possible without the broad foundation of basic science. The Technion’s goal is to maintain a balance between basic research and implementation, with the good of the State of Israel being a key component in our research and development strategy.” He presented Technion’s global strategy, centering on the establishment of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York and the Guangdong Technion Institute of Technology, which will be inaugurated in China next month.

After the ceremony, the Governor met with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and other senior Technion officials, including Senior Executive Vice President Professor Adam Shwartz, Dr. Gabriel Shemer of the Business Unit (T3), Prof. Carmel Domshlak of the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Prof. Eli Biham, Head of the Technion Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center.

The University of Illinois System is actually a group of universities and institutes where some 700,000 graduates have studied and more than 80,000 students are currently enrolled. University President Timothy L. Killeen said during the visit: “This MOU pairs two giants of discovery. Like Technion, we strive for excellence. We enjoy economies of scale and you have other advantages, such as the speed at which you translate research into applications and bring products to the market. I have no doubt that all parties involved will benefit from our cooperation.”

 

Distinguished Prof. Jacob Ziv of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering has been chosen as laureate for the 2017 EMET Prize in the category of ‘Exact Sciences: Computer & Electronic Engineering.’

The prize is awarded annually under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Israel, and consists of five categories of academic or professional achievements that have significantly benefited society. Prof. Ziv is being recognized for his game-changing contribution to the fields of information and communications.

Over the years, Prof. Ziv has won prestigious awards including the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Israel Prize in the Exact Sciences, Israel Defense Prize (twice), Marconi International Award, IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, and Claude E. Shannon Award. He has held positions including President of the Israel Academy of Sciences, Chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Israeli Council for Higher Education, and has been a member of leading American and European societies.

The Lempel-Ziv algorithm, which Prof. Ziv developed together with Prof. Abraham Lempel of Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science, is an algorithm for compressing information that enables lossless compression regardless of the structure of the data and without prior knowledge of its statistical properties. Many of the compression technologies currently used in memory devices, computers, and smartphones were developed based on this algorithm.

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 9, 2017.

Lessons from Marine Sponges Could Lead to Novel Glass Technology

HAIFA, ISRAEL (November 8, 2017) – The technology for glass forming and shaping requires heat treatment at high temperatures of about 1000o C. So it has long been a mystery how it is that certain marine organisms are able to form glass architectures (called spicules) in cold water.

Now, a paper published recently in Science Advances by Professor Emil Zolotoyabko, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and colleagues in Germany, headed by Dr. Igor Zlotnikov from TU Dresden, is helping to unravel that mystery. Using the most advanced X-ray methods, nano-tomography and focused X-ray diffraction, available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France), the group uncovered the principles of spicule morphogenesis in certain kinds of marine sponges.

Marine sponges are one of the oldest multicellular organisms, with a fossil record that stretches back more than half a billion years. Demospongiae and Hexactinellida, two classes of sponges, synthesize mineralized silica-based skeletal elements, called glass spicules, which provide the animals with structural support and mechanical strength and help protect them from their environment. The spicules are microns to millimeters long and exhibit a diversity of highly regular three-dimensional branched morphologies that are an example of symmetry in biological systems (Fig. 1).

During spicule formation, the process of silica deposition is templated by an axial organic filament. The filament, up to 3 mm in diameter, is predominantly composed of enzymatically active proteins, silicatein and its derivatives, which catalyze bio-fabrication of silica, the process being genetically controlled by specialized cells, called sclerocytes.

According to the researchers, the most intriguing finding is that protein blocks in the axial filament are arranged in a crystal-like three-dimensional structure having hexagonal symmetry. The pores within this structure are filled by amorphous silica. This highly regular spatial arrangement of nano-metric amorphous blocks gives rise to very sharp spots in the X-ray diffraction pattern (Fig. 2), which bring comprehensive information on the spicule symmetry and the branching process.

For example, the researchers found that the main shaft of the spicule grows perpendicular to the base hexagon plane of the protein lattice. At some point, the branching of the shaft occurs, directed by pyramidal planes inclined by about 66o with respect to the hexagon plane. In that way, the tetrapod shape of the spicule (Fig. 1) is produced being guided by the symmetry properties of the protein crystal in the axial filament. Further splits (fork-like in Fig. 1) are also determined by particular planes in the hexagonal lattice.

“By using the crystalline axial filament, nature has mastered the fabrication of extremely complex glass structures at low temperatures that is far beyond the abilities of current human technology,” says Prof. Zolotoyabko. “Further understanding of how the organisms regulate the branching events in the filaments has the potential to be adopted in the production of technologically relevant nano-crystalline materials of complicated shapes for nano-electronics. Mimicking natural recipes in the lab will allow us to develop novel glass technology working at room temperature.”