Author: shlomi ben-oz

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.

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.

 

Heba Abbud of Shefar’am began her studies at the Technion at the age of 16 because high school bored her.

In the middle of 9^th grade, Heba Abbud approached her math teacher to inform him that she had finished learning all of the material for the five-unit matriculation exam. After confirming that this was indeed the case, her teacher obtained special approval from the Ministry of Education for Heba to take the 5-unit math and physics matriculation exams at the end of 9^th grade. In 10^th grade, she completed the remaining matriculation exams in an external studies program, scored a 738 on her psychometric exam, and began studying at the Technion – not in a Youth Science program, but as a regular student in the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

The Technion made no concessions in the acceptance process, but allowing her to begin her academic studies at such a young age (16) required special approvals, which Heba obtained with the personal help of Israel’s Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and Abdallah Hatib, Director of the Arab Sector Education. In a personal conversation, Mr. Bennett went so far as to call Heba “The next Einstein of Israel.”

Heba Abbud was born in Shefar’am in 2000 and studied at the El Oskofia Catholic school. When she was an eight grader, Heba was identified for outstanding capabilities by school Principal Farouk Farhud. In parallel to her junior high school and high school studies, she participated in Youth Science activities at the Technion and in the “Computational Science” Physics program at the Davidson Institute.

Even though her studies at the Technion aren’t overly difficult for her, after 7 consecutive years, she stopped learning ballet, because, she says, “the bottom line is that you have to put in many hours here.”

Last year, she was already awarded an “Excellence Award” by the president of the Technion, and this year, was accepted to the Excellence program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The EMET Excellence Program (electronics, computers and communications) was designed to motivate excelling students to realize their capacities, to perform research during their undergraduate degree, and to nurture qualifications that will later service them in the academia and industry. Each student is accompanied by a personal advisor from the research staff and can, to a certain degree, tailor his/her own curriculum. In the framework of this program, Heba Abbud participates in the ongoing research in the laboratory of Associate Professor Shahar Kvatinsky. As far as she is concerned, the future is also in academia.

Prof. Hossam Haick delivers Technion UK’s Ron Arad lecture on Cancer Sniffing Nose

LONDON, 6 March 2018 – Technion UK is proud to host the Ron Arad lecture in London. Presenting at the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Hossam Haick from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion in Israel and an expert in the field of nanotechnology and non-invasive disease diagnosis, delivered a lecture on the developments into his pioneering research into nanoarrays that he is using to identify disease biomarkers as a novel diagnostic tool.

Every disease has a unique signature, known as what we call a ‘breath print’.

Prof. Haick is an Israeli-Christian Arab scientist and engineer and is the pioneer of the Electronic Nose – a medical device that can sniff out 17 specific diseases in a person’s breath, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Tuberculous, Diabetes and Lung Cancer. As an active innovative scientist, he has attracted the attentions of the world’s billionaires such as Bill Gates and he has been in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in the diagnostics of diseases.

At the lecture, Prof. Haick said, “Every disease has a unique signature, known as what we call a ‘breath print’. The challenge is to bring the best science we have proven into reality by developing a smaller device that captures all the components of a disease that appear in the breath.’

Prof. Haick continued to demonstrate how current advances in his research has the potential to identify diseases though sensors in mobile phones and wearable technology. From analysing 3700 volunteers, the technology under development at The Technion also has the potential to predict the occurrence of cancer in the future, based on results of healthy people that are currently under the diagnosis with the breath analysis.

He continued, “We cannot develop this technology in Israel without developing the best science. The integration between the software, machine learning and academic intelligence will make a critical change in the early detection and prevention of cancerous diseases.”

Daniel Peltz OBE, Chairman of Technion UK said, “We’re delighted to welcome Prof. Haick to London to showcase this latest progressive innovation in cancer research from The Technion.’

“Technion students undertake scientific research which is powering Israel’s rapid high-tech growth; our students are brilliant at challenging, creating and inventing – skills which the Prof. Haick exemplifies. The marvellous technology and advancement in non-invasive disease detection, discoveries in nanotechnology to help detect disease from someone’s breath is the future of disease detection.”

For more information about The Technion visit www.technionuk.org

 

First Israeli in the International Organization for Science Education Research: Prof. Tali Tal from Technion

Prof. Tali Tal of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology has been elected President Elect of NARST, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. It is the world’s most influential organization in this field and is made up of about 2,500 researchers from around the world.

Prof. Tal holds a B.Sc in biology and an M.Sc in plant ecology. “For many years I worked for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel,” she says. “During my military service I guided groups of students. After completing my Master’s I became acutely aware that our methods of guidance and instruction at SPNI were not aligned to our student audience. Until then, I had wanted and expected students to learn ecology and other field subjects during an educational field trip in nature, to understand characteristics of the vegetation in the Upper Galilee, and to internalize the differences between a forest and shrub habitats. Thanks to my studies, I learned that rather than “delivering knowledge” and having students remember names of trees and flowers, it is necessary to develop their thinking, and enrich their experience outside the classroom and make it so enjoyable that they will want to repeat it.”

Since then, that is, during and after her PhD, Prof. Tal has focused on environmental and science education outside the classroom. “I discovered that it was in museums, zoos, botanical gardens, and the school’s nearby environment that students experienced meaningful learning – often more meaningful than from regular classroom teaching.  Out-of-school learning environments enable interdisciplinary learning in everyday contexts.

In recent years, Tal is focusing on field-based inquiry learning that enhances sophisticated thinking in multiple disciplines. A group of teachers Tal instructed in collaboration with the archeologist Dr. Mordechai Aviam, participated in an archeological investigation in which a magnificent Byzantine mosaic floor with an inscription and perfect peacock was found. This interdisciplinary work was funded by two ISF grants.

Prof. Tal has exported her approach to teacher professional development through outdoor inquiry to Michigan State University, where she works with researchers from the CREATE for STEM institute and the W.K Kellogg Biological Station.

Recently, Tal is part of a group of researchers from the University of Haifa and the Technion who were granted by ISF and the Ministry of Education, an “Excellence Center” for developing meaningful learning through citizen science. “Taking Citizen Science to School” collaborate with scientists, educators and various organizations to support learning through student engagement in real scientific endeavors.

Prof. Tal is the first Israeli to be elected to the board of directors of NARST, about three years ago, and her term as president elect will begin in March 2018.

Six “astronauts” have entered a structure designed by Technion students in order to simulate life on Mars. The building was erected near the town of Mitzpeh Ramon as a first step in the establishment of a space simulation center.

Technion students designed a construction to help simulate human life on Mars as part of a unique course held at Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, led by architects Moshe Zagai and Alon Shikar. The building, named HAB01, was built in Mitzpeh Ramon at the 13th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference. Last week six “astronauts” including Zagai and Shikar entered it in order to learn about life under Mars-like conditions and perform various experiments.

Mars has always aroused great curiosity amongst mankind. In the ‘60s, the Mariner 4 spacecraft photographed Mars, and since then many more voyages have been conducted. Furthermore, many believe that Mars will be the next location of human habitation in space, and the likes of NASA and SpaceX are preparing to land the first expedition on the Red Planet.

However, conditions on Mars are not friendly to humans: remarkably low temperatures (around 60 degrees below zero), strong ultraviolet radiation, and an atmosphere low in oxygen. These require serious preparation and a thorough understanding of the potential future living conditions on Mars.

The special course that was held at Technion focused on construction on Mars, and its main goal was to design a structure to house ten people. The course facilitator, Alon Shikar, said that the project requires in-depth understanding of sociological, psychological, technical, and functional aspects. Due to the complexity of the project, which took place within the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, students from other Technion faculties were also invited to the course, including Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering.

The building, designed in cooperation with the Davidson Institute of Science Education of the Weizmann Institute of Science, is the first step in establishing a space simulation center near the Ramon Crater.

Are you ready for €60,000 equity-free funding?

EIT FAN is a new EU funded multi-location accelerator programme delivered across Europe. Over a 4 month acceleration period, start-ups will have access to a buffet of tools, connections, mentors and expertise to help them to succeed. With the 3 best start-ups receiving €60,000 each in equity-free cash prizes.

Driven by a consortium of EIT Food partners, representing the very best in academic and industry expertise in the food space, and with MassChallenge, the programme supports high impact food-space start-ups to maximise their success.

The EIT FAN will be held across 4 locations in Germany, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and will start 18th June 2018.

Are you ready for €60,000 equity-free funding?

For further details click here: http://www.eitfan.eu

 

Best known as Captain Hawkeye Pierce from the hit 1970s television series M*A*S*H, the actor Alan Alda gave a fascinating lecture at Technion on February 21st on a subject about which he is passionate: communicating science to the public.

Alda, who is an expert in this field, established the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York, and conducts seminars all over the U.S. to help scientists improve the way they explain their work to other people.

Many of the techniques Alda uses to teach communication, such as improvisational theater, are rooted in his acting career, and his talent as an actor was also clearly on display during his lecture. Alda, who is 82, had no problem holding the attention of the crowd in the large auditorium despite the lack of PowerPoint slides, proving that he is indeed a master of communication.

During the hour-long lecture, Alda compared interest in Science to the three stages of falling in love (which he invented): attraction, infatuation and commitment. If scientists are able to connect to their listeners in such a way that they achieve commitment and an emotional bond, the listeners will remain engaged in the long-term. Since these are skills that everyone can learn, Alda believes that every scientist can be trained to effectively communicate even the most complex information to a lay public.   

Alda visited Technion as part of the Science Communication Workshop, which he, together with instructors from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, delivered to researchers who are members of The Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program founded by Mort Zuckerman. The program promotes joint research by doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the United States and Israel through scholarships and educational initiatives in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

A second Science Communication Workshop, dedicated to Technion faculty is being held this week. This workshop is funded by The Kavli Foundation, dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public understanding of scientific research, and supporting scientists and their work.

New Method Uses Light and Gold Nanoparticles for Highly Targeted, Non-Invasive Drug Delivery

Researchers in the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering have developed a new drug-release method that uses light for highly targeted, completely non-invasive delivery

HAIFA, ISRAEL (February 25, 2018) – Over the last century, there has been astounding progress in medical science, leading to the development of efficient, effective medications for treating cancer and a wide variety of other diseases. But the random dispersion of drugs throughout the body often lowers their effectiveness and, even worse, damages healthy tissue. A prime example of this is the use of chemotherapy drugs, which work to block cell division, causing hair loss and bowel issues in cancer patients (hair growth and waste elimination both depend on rapid cell turnover).

This has led to a global effort to develop smarter systems for drug delivery that will more effectively target the specific part of the body affected by cancer, bypassing healthy tissue. A recent issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces presents groundbreaking work in the field by the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

Doctoral candidate Alona Shagan and Assistant Professor Boaz Mizrahi have developed a technology that enables drugs to be delivered and released only to the diseased tissue which the drug is targeting. The new method uses a unique polymer coating that contains nanoscale gold particles, in addition to the drug itself. The drug only releases when a light shines on the gold particles, causing the polymeric coating to melt.

“Photo-triggered materials fulfill a vital role in a range of bio-medical applications,” said Shagan. “But despite this enormous potential, these materials are rarely used because of toxins in the polymer coating itself, and damage caused by high-energy (shortwave) light.”

The researchers designed the one-of-a-kind delivery method to release under longwave light (Near-Infrared, NIR). The light warms the gold nanoshells, melting the polymer packaging, and releasing the drug. The primary advantage of NIR light is its ability to penetrate bodily tissues without harming them. 

“We’ve developed a material with varying melting points, allowing us to control it using low intensities,” explains Prof. Mizrahi. “Our system is composed of FDA-approved materials, and we are relatively close to clinical application.”

The researchers believe this new technology can be used for a variety of other applications, such as sealing of internal and external injuries, temporary holding of tissue during surgery, or as biodegradable scaffolds for growing transplant organs. It may even be possible to use the polymer as part of the self-healing process, giving it a wide range of both medical and non-medical applications.

“This article focuses on the concept and material: how we can design the material to fulfill these particular physical and mechanical requirements,” says Prof. Mizrahi. “The next step will include creating particles that include the drugs so that we can test their improved effectiveness using this delivery technology. We’ll discuss that in an upcoming article.”

 

Shai Shen-Orr is a systems biologist and data scientist who directs the laboratory of Systems Immunology and Precision Medicine at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Check out Shai’s 2017 TEDMED Talk to learn more about the new analytical methods he and his team are using to get a peek inside the “black box” of the immune system, and to make getting an “immune system checkup” as commonplace as a cardiovascular checkup.

Technion researchers have developed a technology that replaces scalpels with natural biological materials

HAIFA, ISRAEL (February 15, 2018) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a nanotechnology that replaces the surgical scalpel with an “enzymatic blade.” In an article published recently in ACS Nano, the researchers describe the application of this technology in a surgical procedure in the oral cavity. The application spares the pain associated with orthodontic surgeries and significantly reduces tissue recovery time.

The study was led by Dr. Assaf Zinger, within the framework of his doctoral research, mentored by Assistant Professor Avi Schroeder, the director of the Laboratory of Targeted Drug Delivery and Personalized Medicine at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. The novel technology is based on rational use of enzymes – biological molecules the body uses to repair itself, as well as on use of nanoparticles for achieving a targeted therapeutic profile.

In the United States alone, approximately five million people undergo orthodontic treatment each year. To speed up treatment, which typically lasts about two years, many undergo invasive surgery, in which collagen fibers that connect the tooth to the underlying bone tissue are cut.

The technology developed at the Technion softens the collagen fibers via the targeted release of collagenase – an enzyme that specifically breaks down collagen. Using techniques developed in Schroeder’s lab, the collagenase is packaged into liposomes – nanometric vesicles. As long as the collagenase particles are packaged in the liposome, they are inactive. But with this special nanotechnology, an ointment is applied on the target site, so that the enzyme begins to gradually leak from the liposome and soften the collagen fibers. The researchers performed a series of tests to determine the collagenase concentration optimal for the procedure and to accelerate tissue repair thereafter.

In a preclinical trial, the researchers compared the efficacy of the controlled-release system (in combination with braces), to that of standard orthodontic treatment and concluded that the system reduces the time required for straightening teeth and improving therapeutic outcome. This would translate to an orthodontic treatment in humans that lasts several months, instead of two years. The researchers estimate that it could be used in humans within a couple of years.

While the ACS Nano article presents a specific application of the “enzymatic blade” in the orthodontics field, the researchers emphasize that the new paradigm can be applied in a variety of surgical procedures. “Over thousands of years, the surgical knife has been upgraded, however, the general paradigm has not changed. Here, in the current study, we present a considerable paradigm shift: replacing the metal blade with a biological process.”

Also taking part in this research collaboration were physicians at the Sourasky Tel Aviv Medical Center Department of Pathology and the Rambam Medical Center Department of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, and the director of the Moriah Animal Companion Center. The research was supported by grants from the European Council and European Union, German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, various Israeli foundations and Alon and Taub Fellowships.

Click here for the paper in ACS Nano

 

Technion President: “During the seven years in which the Yanai Prize for Excellence in Academic Education has been awarded, there has been a marked improvement in the quality of teaching at Technion”

Chairperson of the Technion Students Association Omer Amit: “Yanai Prize recipients provide students with something that they can’t learn from a computer – independent and creative thinking and a recognition of the beauty of the study material”

The Yanai Prize for Excellence in Academic Education was awarded for the seventh consecutive year to five outstanding Technion professors and to the Technion Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In addition to the prizes for excellence, an Educational Initiatives Scholarship and the Yanai Honorable Mention in Education were also awarded.

The ceremony was attended by Moshe and Rachel Yanai, Executive Senior Vice President Prof. Adam Shwartz, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Prof. Hagit Attiya, representatives of Technion’s management, the prize winners and their families, professors and students. The prestigious prize was awarded for the seventh year in a row “in honor of and appreciation for members of the academic faculty who set an example through their continuous contribution to teaching and learning and their efforts to strengthen Technion students’ involvement and sense of belonging.” The ceremony was hosted by Prof. Alon Wolf from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who received the Yanai Prize in 2014.The 2017 Yanai Prize recipients are:

• Professor Michael Elad – Faculty of Computer Science
• Associate Professor Gil Alexandrowicz – Schulich Faculty of Chemistry
• Associate Professor Josue Sznitman – Faculty of Biomedical Engineering
• Assistant Professor Ram Band – Faculty of Mathematics
• Assistant Professor Mahmood Jabareen – Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie’s speech was read by his wife, Dr. Lina Lavie, as he was unable to attend due to the funeral of Ruth Rappaport, a great friend of Technion. The president noted that the Yanai Prize has already become a success story. “During the seven years in which the prize has been awarded, there has been a marked improvement in the quality of teaching at Technion. This change is reflected in the student feedback questionnaires, which, in the past few years, have shown a steady rise in the average score given to professors and in the percentage of professors rated at the high end of the scale. In addition, Technion’s ranking has risen in annual nation-wide student surveys measuring satisfaction with teaching quality. The Yanai Prize, which has become well-known and highly esteemed even outside of Technion, has contributed significantly to these changes.

Last November, the British weekly Times Higher Education published a survey that ranked Technion as the leading institution in the world for imparting digital skills to its students and training them for the digital revolution. At the heart of the matter lies the universities’ existential need to adapt to the digital era and to modify timeworn teaching and learning methods in order to remain relevant.”

“With such professors and educators,” continued President Lavie, “I am confident that the next generation of Technion graduates will be top-notch researchers, engineers, doctors and architects, each in his or her own discipline, and just as importantly – moral, compassionate, tolerant and humane people, values they absorbed from their teachers during the years they spent here.”

Prof. Hagit Attiya, Vice President for Academic Affairs, chaired the Prize Committee. She remarked that, “the Yanai Prize is the most important prize awarded at Technion for excellence in teaching. All recipients carry the teaching torch and exemplify the precept that a teacher must be understood but not taken for granted.”

At the ceremony, Technion alumnus Moshe Yanai, who, together with his wife Rachel, donated 12 million dollars to establish the Prize seven years ago, said that, “turning human capital from a catchword to practice is a huge challenge, since personal motivation is driven by self-promotion. We all yearn to progress, to support our families, to advance our career and to publish articles. Faculty members who invest in teaching do not get credit for doing so, and therefore they must be appreciated and recognized.”

Omer Amit, Chairperson of the Technion Students Association, said that, “while in the past, professors gained power through obedience to authority and privileged access to information, nowadays all human data is accessible to every student on his smartphone. Apart from delivering information, good professors provide their students with true leverage for the future: creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This is what distinguishes Yanai Prize winners: they can provide the student with something that they can’t learn from a computer – independent and creative thinking and a recognition of the beauty of the study material. These are people who don’t view research and teaching as two opposing worlds, but, rather, as two means of reaching the same goal.”

“When we teach, each student must feel that we are talking to him or her,” said Assistant Professor Ram Band of the Faculty of Mathematics, who spoke on behalf of the prizewinners. “It’s all a matter of wording, speech, interaction and manner of leading a discussion, which can all be done without compromising the Technion standard of excellence. Love of education, a passion to understand and aspiration for clarity accompany me from the home in which I grew up. These are the foundations that have led me to a career in education and teaching. In the name of the prize winners – we thank you for selecting us.”

Additional prizes were awarded this year as part of the Yanai Prizes: Associate Professor Yossi Gil from the Faculty of Computer Science won a Yanai Educational Initiatives Scholarship for developing a Q&A database for exams, and the Yanai Honorable Mention in Education went to Associate Professor Omri Barak from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.

The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award. The faculty’s dean, Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, a past Yanai Prize recipient himself, said that “the ceremony is a cause for celebration, not only because of the award, the honor and the attention, but also because it forces us to be introspective. Our activity is founded on three values: variety, which includes international students, students from the periphery and students from all sectors of Israeli society; connection to the community and society, and involvement in environmental, social and other issues; and the understanding that students are not our clients, but, rather, strategic partners working with us toward common goals – improving society and mankind.”

About the Yanai Prize

Moshe Yanai, a global pioneer in the field of information storage, sought, via his donation, to give back to Technion, as a way of thanking and showing appreciation for the tools the institution provided him during his studies 40 years ago. Since he recalls his years at Technion as being difficult, and at times even traumatic, he decided, together with Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie, create a prize to be awarded to professors who have demonstrated teaching excellence, and thereby also contribute to Technion students. The prize money of 100,000 shekels is awarded to each recipient, and will be given over a period of 20 years.

The Technion mourns the profound loss of Mrs. Ruth Rappaport, who passed away this week: “We lost a dear and devoted friend,” said Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, “an exceptional woman for whom ‘Tikun Olam’ was a guiding principle. Ruth devoted her life to people, to the State of Israel, to the city of Haifa and to the Technion in particular. The Technion is indebted to Ruth, together with her late husband Baruch, for the establishment of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion.

Ruth and Baruch were the generous benefactors behind the establishment of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion and the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, which they continued to support over the years out of the conviction that, “Patients have no borders and therefore medicine can be a bridge to peace.”

Ruth Rappaport was born in Berlin on April 6, 1924. In 1933, following Hitler’s rise to power, her family immigrated to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv and later in Haifa. At the age of 18, she met Baruch, a meeting that led to 65 years of marriage, which ended with Baruch’s passing in 2010. Baruch, a native of Haifa, served in the British army and the IDF, completed law studies and established successful businesses in banking, shipping and oil.

Ruth Rappaport dedicated her life to helping others and over the years served as Co-Chair of World WIZO and as Chair of the Inter-Maritime Foundation for the Advancement of Humanitarian Projects. She raised funds for daycare centers around the country believing that, “The future lies in children and the family, and every amount collected today will bear fruit in future generations.”

In the early 1970s, the Rappaports enlisted to aid the Technion, which sought to expand the newly-founded Faculty of Medicine, then operating out of a former monastery adjacent to Rambam Hospital. Ruth and Baruch responded to the plea of Prof. David Erlik and donated the money to build a 14-story tower building, home to the medical faculty to this day. The building was inaugurated in June 1974, and even then the Rappaports firmly believed that medical faculty members would one day win the Nobel Prize – a prophecy that was realized in 2004 with the winning of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover.

In 2014, the Technion awarded Ruth Rappaport an honorary doctorate “In gratitude for your work as a philanthropist of the first rank; in recognition of your generous humanitarian spirit and support of a variety of cultural, social, and health initiatives; and in appreciation of your support of numerous educational and child welfare projects, which improve the quality of life in Israel.”

The Technion mourns the passing of Mrs. Ruth Rappaport and extends heartfelt condolences to the entire Rappaport family.

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