{"id":84771,"date":"2021-06-11T05:54:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T02:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/blog\/uzia-galil-founding-father-of-the-innovation-nation\/"},"modified":"2021-06-11T05:54:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T02:54:37","slug":"uzia-galil-founding-father-of-the-innovation-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/uzia-galil-founding-father-of-the-innovation-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Uzia Galil – Founding Father of the Innovation Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Technion mourns the passing of Uzia Galil, founding father of Israeli high-tech, Technion alumnus and lifetime friend, supporter, and collaborator of Technion.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUzia was a visionary who contributed greatly to the Technion, to industry, and to Israeli society,\u201d said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan in a Eulogy to him. \u201cHe was one of the Technion\u2019s most prominent graduates and a true friend to the Technion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The life of Uzia Galil tells the tale of a century, including Israel\u2019s journey from destitution to prosperity and the regenerating power of the innovative spirit embodied by Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. According to Prof. Sivan, Technion graduate Uzia Galil was: \u201can entrepreneur in every fiber of his being.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Uzia Galil (1925-2021): \u201cAn entrepreneur, in every fiber of his being.\u201d<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Uzia Galil was born in 1925 in Bucharest. Fleeing the Nazi takeover of Romania, he arrived at age 16 in British-run Palestine. In 1943 he enrolled at the Technion in electrical engineering, and after his studies \u2013 he served in the navy. After postgraduate studies at Purdue University in Indiana, he worked for Motorola on the development of colored television, and then returned to Israel and the navy as head of the electronics R&D department. In 1957 he joined the Technion as a lecturer and became director of the electronics department at the Faculty of Physics. As part of his research in the Technion, he developed complex electronic systems for use in physics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside his work at the Technion, Galil established \u201cElron\u201d in 1962, which spawned over 25 technological companies, including Elscint and Zoran. \u201cThe Elron company, which Uzia founded, was the first successful realization of entrepreneurship in a science-based industry to grow out of a technical institute in Israel,\u201d said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. \u201cGalil was ahead of his time in many areas. He laid the foundations for the Israeli Startup Nation, anticipating the essential combination of technology and medicine in service of mankind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Galil was a key initiator of the country\u2019s first industrial park, which today is the flourishing MATAM Scientific Industries Center<\/a>, home to R&D offices of Intel, Yahoo!, Google, Philips, and Microsoft. With 50 years under its belt and scores of spin-offs numbering tens of thousands of employees, Elron has been one of the pillars of the Israeli economy and its high-tech \u201cmiracle.\u201d And Technion graduates were key to its success \u2013 not just as engineers but as managers and executives. \u201cIf you look at our companies \u2013 the engineering teams, the software people \u2013 the majority are Technion graduates,\u201d <\/span>said Galil. <\/span>He later founded the \u201cGalil Centre for medical informatics and telemedicine\u201d adjacent to the Technion\u2019s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine<\/a> in order to harness technology for the benefit of human health through the integration of different technological systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1977, the Technion awarded Galil an honorary doctorate. In 1980 he became the first Technion graduate to become Chairman of the Board of Governors, a position which he held until 1990. He continued as a member of the Technion Council until his passing. In 1997 Galil received the Technion Medal and was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to the development of the Israeli high-tech industry. \u201cHis contribution to the Technion as head of the Board of Governors and member of the Technion Council for many years was immense,\u201d said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my life, I always thought ahead. I said \u2013 OK, what we\u2019ve done \u2013 we\u2019ve done. The question is, what are we going to do tomorrow?\u201d said Galil in December 2007 in a keynote speech at a conference on next-generation medical products. \u201cAnd here we have to understand what is expected from us, where we can really excel, where we can maintain our position. The first and foremost in my opinion is to clearly identify where our relative advantages are. It is recognized that one of the strongest characteristics of Israel is the innovative power and the desire for knowledge both in academia and in the industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the Technion, I share the family’s grief and offer our sincere condolences,\u201d said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.<\/span><\/p>\n

May his memory be a blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n