Technion : Bringing Utopia to Life
Recognized as one of the top 100 institutions in the Shanghai ranking, the Technion is a bastion of academic excellence. With a total of 60 research centers, the institute attracts over 14,000 knowledge seekers every year. Today, Technion is world-renowned for its achievements. A reputation further enhanced by the attribution of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three of its researchers in 2004 and 2011.
From capturing light, to predicting the emergence of epidemics, to lifting paraplegics with a robotic exo-skeleton, it's at the Technion that the greatest scientific minds gather to reshape the world. Among them: Amit Goffer, father of ReWalk Robotics, and the famous Israeli-Ukrainian computer scientist Kira Radinsky, co-titular of 10 patents and ranked among the 30 most promising young entrepreneurs by Forbes in 2015.
Key cornerstone of the Start-Up Nation, the Technion is a symbol of national ascension and a source of inspiration. What secret lies behind such success ?
The origins of the Technion: "a sustainable construction for the development of humanity"
What does it takes to build a nation ? Half a century before the proclamation of the State of Israel, this question would already be occupying Jewish 20th-century intellectuals. In a Europe where anti-Semitism was rampant in its most virulent forms, the need to return to the ancestral homeland and bring human knowledge to fruition was more pressing than ever.
At the fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, three emblematic figures - philosopher Martin Buber, Chaim Weizmann, then a biochemist, and journalist Berthold Feiwel - brought the Technion project to the attention of the participants. The creation of this educational institute for engineers will lay the foundations for a program to promote Hebrew culture and contribute to the development of the future state.
Twenty years on, the vision of Israel's founders, carried from the concert halls of Basel's Stadtcasino, is now starting to take shape. The Technion, an outstanding university campus, came into being thanks to the involvement of its own members. German architect and future professor Alexandre Baerwald designed the plans for this innovative infrastructure. In 1923, Albert Einstein himself visited the construction site, adding his participation by planting the very first palm tree.
The Technikum opened its doors in 1924. The first graduating class numbered 17: 10 engineers and 7 architects, including one woman. Cette première génération ouvre la voie à une pléthore d’ingénieurs civils, de scientifiques et d’architectes.
Receiving the honorary doctorate in architecture in 1962, David Ben Gourion told the institute's students: “Go out to the four corners of our country. Use your scientific knowledge to build up the land. Build this institute that we call the Technion so that its teachers and students can build Israel. Let Israel make a lasting contribution for mankind’s cultural and scientific development”. Prime Minister of the Jewish State's Remark Strikes a Chord.
Growing Institute : A Regional Technology Hub Project
At the eve of the new millennium, all gazes were riveted on the Technion. Across the globe, the academic prowess of Israel's MIT attracted the interest of prestigious international universities. Partnerships multiplied in the USA, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. The Technion was one of the first universities in the Middle East to welcome students from developing countries. After being honored to count Nigerian architect and politician Olorogun Felix Ovudoroye Ibru among its students in the 1960s, in 1998 the Technion graduated its first Ethiopian student in food engineering: Dr. Kebede Eshetu, and Dr. Abu Farich Award, the first Bedouin student in chemistry.
At the start of construction, when the first buildings sprang up in the vastness of Technion City, some visitors wondered why a country as small as Israel needed such a vast campus. In his essay on the history of the Technion, journalist Carl Alpert reports that the institute's spokesman answered these inquiries by arguing that the site's architects were building not just for the present, but for the future, when peace is established in the Middle East. The Technion would then become a regional technology center, welcoming students from all the neighboring countries, who in turn would contribute to improving the standard of living in their own countries.
Utopian or successful words? In 1944, the Egyptian Minister of Science visited the institute to foster Israeli-Egyptian cooperation in the IT sector. In 1995, intellectual curiosity once again bridges the gap between Israel and its neighbors. A Palestinian delegation of experts in agriculture (PARC) and hydrology (PHG) set off to discover the Technion. The shift towards scientific collaboration seemed to be on the horizon. But beyond the purely scientific, the concord is inscribed in a tangible architectural project. Such is the thinking of Madjad el Humud. In 1997, the Jordanian architect spent ten days on campus as part of a construction mission: "I didn't come to talk about peace, but to materialize it".
What's the situation today ?
The number of Arab students enrolled at Technion has more than tripled over the past decade, rising from 7% in 2010 to 22% in 2020. Of these, 60% are women. Since 2006, the NAM program promoting excellence among Arab youth has been fully committed to boosting these figures. Thanks to intensive training in mathematics, physics, English and Hebrew, NAM offers enrollees the chance to succeed in their academic careers and gain access to selective positions in leading Israeli companies such as Intel, TEVA and Check Point.
Diplomatic relations have always followed the pace of progress. In 1996, the British Technion Society presented King Hussein of Jordan with the Winston Churchill Award for his contribution to the cause of peace in the Middle East. Accepting the prize to thunderous applause, the monarch, moved, regarded the assembly with intensity and delivered his speech.
“Technion has been a beacon of learning in our region, we are aware of its great achievements. Our borders are guarded by our people, working together to ensure that peace is protected for all the times to come. To those who continue to oppose peace, who continue to oppose life, who continue to oppose light, I hope that all their attempts to destroy what we have built will fail.” - Hussein de Jordanie
May his wish be granted.
Sources :
Carl Alpert (1982), The Story Of Israel's Institute Of Technology, American Technion Soc.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/history-of-the-technion/
https://technionuk.org/about-technion-uk/
https://www.technionfrance.org/news/larchitecte-de-letat-disrael
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-rewalk-snaps-up-alterg-for-19-million-in-profitability-push/
https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/en/einstein.aspx
