You Are a Source of Inspiration for Us

The Technion awarded diplomas to 206 new doctoral graduates in engineering, science, medicine, architecture, management, and education at a festive ceremony. Women comprised 48% of the graduates, the youngest of whom is 22. And what was the subject of the first doctoral dissertation at the Technion?

A festive ceremony awarding doctoral degrees to 206 doctoral graduates was held last week at the Technion. The event, which took place at the Kellner Amphitheater, was attended by Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan, Senior Executive Vice President Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, Dean of the Jacobs Graduate School Prof. Uri Peskin, faculty deans, faculty members, and the graduates’ families. The ceremony was hosted by Prof. Boaz Mizrahi from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

The dissertations of the doctoral graduates cover a wide range of fields, including green energy, preeclampsia, innovative microscopy, targeted cancer therapy, artificial language models, and DNA-based data storage. The youngest graduate is Dr. Orian Leitersdorf, 22, from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, whose doctoral research focused on developing components for next-generation computers.

The leading faculty this year in the number of graduates is the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with 31 doctoral graduates, followed by the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine (22) and the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (18). Among the doctoral graduates were two pairs of siblings who graduated together: twins Dr. Manar and Dr. Rawan Halabi, who both earned their doctorates with highest honors from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, and brothers Dr. Lior and Dr. Chen Zano, who both received their doctorates from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan told the graduates: “Scientific research and the expansion of human knowledge are, by their nature, filled with failures and dead ends. Passion, wisdom, and persistence are required to find the right path through the winding maze – but the satisfaction is immense when it is revealed. The doctorate is an intellectual journey of an individual with themselves, a journey like no other, and all those standing here today can testify to that. You leave the Technion different from when you entered it, holding in your hands immense power to bring about positive change.”

Dean of the Graduate School Prof. Uri Peskin said emotionally to the graduates:
“You are heroes. You strove for contact with the truth, you triumphed over ignorance, and you sanctified the act of questioning. Each of you, in your field, has reached the frontier of human knowledge and has pushed beyond it with your unique contribution. We hope that what you have learned here will accompany you in everything you do. Always – and especially now – you are a source of inspiration for us. From you we draw hope, strength, and optimism.”

Speaking on behalf of the graduates, Dr. Elad Hadar from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering said: “This ceremony is, for us, the endpoint of a long and challenging journey, but also – and perhaps above all – a starting point: for new endeavors, for applying the knowledge and skills we have acquired, and for continued growth in research, in industry, in education, or in any field we choose. I also want to wish success to the doctoral students who are still in the midst of their journey, and to those just beginning it – including my wife Mor, who has just started her doctoral studies. Warm congratulations to all the new doctoral graduates, and best of luck on the new path that lies ahead.”

In November 1952, the first doctoral degree at the Technion was awarded to Dr. Eliezer Mishkin, who researched “Direct Calculation of Induction Motors on the Basis of Maxwell’s Field Equations” under the supervision of Prof. Franz Ollendorff, founder of the department that later became the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Mishkin’s degree was titled “Doctor of Technical Sciences,” and the event received notable international coverage. The American Jewish World reported: “The first doctoral degree in the science of technology was awarded at Haifa Technical Institute (Technion) to Dr. Eliezer Mishkin,” noting that Mishkin was himself a Technion graduate and lecturer in electrical engineering. Mishkin went on to an impressive academic career that included research at MIT and Harvard and a professorship in applied physics and electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York (1959–1987).

In 1955, the Technion established the Graduate School, which to date has trained more than 20,000 master’s degree holders and 4,200 doctoral graduates.