Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 by Jews under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion is the oldest university in the country.
The university offers degrees in science and engineering, and related fields such as architecture, medicine, industrial management, and education. It has 19 academic departments, 60 research centers, and 12 affiliated teaching hospitals. Since its founding, it has awarded more than 123,000 degrees and its graduates are cited for providing the skills and education behind the creation and protection of the State of Israel.
Technion's 565 faculty members include three Nobel Laureates in chemistry. Four Nobel laureates have been associated with the university. The current president of the Technion is Uri Sivan.
The selection of Hebrew as the language of instruction, defeating German in the War of the Languages, was an important milestone in Hebrew's consolidation as Israel's official language. The Technion is also a major factor behind the growth of Israel's high-tech industry and innovation, including the country's technical cluster in Silicon Wadi.
History
The Technikum was conceived in the early 1900s by the German-Jewish fund as a school of engineering and sciences. It was to be the only institution of higher learning in the then Ottoman Palestine, other than the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. In October 1913, the board of trustees selected German as the language of instruction, provoking a major controversy known as the War of the Languages. After opposition from American and Russian Jews to the use of German, the board of trustees reversed itself in February 1914 and selected Hebrew as the language of instruction. The German name Technikum was also replaced by the Hebrew name Technion.Technion's cornerstone was laid in 1912, and studies began 12 years later in 1924. In 1923 Albert Einstein visited and planted the now-famous first palm tree, as an initiative of Nobel tradition. The first palm tree still stands today in front of the old Technion building, which is now the MadaTech museum, in the Hadar neighborhood. Einstein founded the first Technion Society, and served as its president upon his return to Germany.
In 1924, Arthur Blok became the Technion's first president.
In the early 1950s, under the administration of Yaakov Dori, who had served as the Israel Defense Forces’ first chief of staff, the Technion launched a campaign to recruit Jewish and pro-Israel scientists from abroad to establish research laboratories and teaching departments in the natural and exact sciences.
Campuses
Haifa
Technion City generally refers to the 1.2-square-kilometer site located on the pine-covered north-eastern slopes of Mount Carmel. The campus comprises over 300 buildings.The Technion has two additional campuses. Its original building in midtown Haifa, in use by the Technion until the mid-1980s, now houses the Israel National Museum of Science, Technology and Space. The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine is located in the neighborhood of Bat Galim, adjacent to Rambam Hospital, the largest medical center in Northern Israel.
Recreational activities on the main campus include an Olympic-size swimming pool as well as gymnastics, squash, and tennis facilities. The Technion Symphony Orchestra and Choir are composed mainly of Technion students and staff. Each term, the Orchestra offers a series of daytime and evening concerts. Films and live performances by leading Israeli artists take place on campus on a regular basis.
In April 2022, a cable car station of the Rakvalit was opened at the main campus, connecting the Technion to Haifa University and to the HaMifratz Central Bus Station and public transit hub at the foot of Mount Carmel.
Tel Aviv
Technion's Division of Continuing Education and External Studies has been operating in the Tel Aviv area since 1958. In July 2013, the Technion moved to a new campus in Sarona. The Technion satellite campus in Sarona includes three buildings in a 1,800 sq. meter area, with a total of 16 modern classrooms. Among the programs that are taught at Sarona are the Technion's International MBA program, which includes students from around the world and guest lecturers from universities such as London Business School, Columbia University, and INSEAD.Cornell Tech
On 19 December 2011, a bid by a consortium of Cornell University and Technion won a competition to establish a new high-tier applied science and engineering institution in New York City. The competition was established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in order to increase entrepreneurship and job growth in the city's technology sector. The winning bid consisted of a state-of-the-art tech campus, built on Roosevelt Island, which had its first phase completed by 2017, with a temporary off-site campus opening in 2013 at the Google New York City headquarters building at 111 Eighth Avenue. The new school has been named the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. Its Founding Director was Craig Gotsman, Technion's Hewlett-Packard Professor of Computer Engineering.In 2015, AOL announced an investment of $5 million in a video research project at the institute. Positive media coverage abounds, as well as some small scale protests from the margins of political and environmental activism.