Cover: Artistic impression of a non-repeating quasicrystal paern showing fivefold symmetry. Quasicrystals were discovered by Technion Distinguished Professor and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2011, Dan Shechtman. PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2012 1 All great ideas start with a silent, creative space in which inspiration is born. In 1912 there was no state of Israel, there were no universities in the Middle East, and there was no infrastructure. But there were dreams of courageous noble endeavor and the power of inspiration. 100 years ago, on April 11th, 1912, that big idea found form in a cornerstone – of the first university in the Middle East: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Israel’s first and greatest start-up was born. quasicrystal It starts here. diffraction pattern 2 “Everything started at the Technion.” - Yossi Vardi, Technion graduate and serial entrepreneur Full circle cornerstone2012 Welcome to this centennial has impacted millions Technion-educated maximize this success, edition of the President’s of scientists, students, pioneers lead nine of the two faculties joined Report. One hundred entrepreneurs and citizens Israel’s top ten exporting forces this year to form years ago, we started at worldwide. Of the 300 companies, which the Technion Computer ground level. There were no non-American NASDAQ account for nearly half Engineering Center (TCE), buildings, few engineers, companies, 72 are based of Israel’s $45 billion in designed to build on this no funds for salaries or in Israel, and of those, annual exports. Together, global leadership. equipment and no reason to two-thirds have Technion investment in the Technion believe that anything would graduates at the helm. A gives a remarkable 76 Technion reaches its come of such an ambitious flood of innovations has percent return, according to centennial year with enterprise. The slow and originated from Technion: a recent study by Technion the blessing of a new difficult development of memory sticks; the Ziv- Profs. Shlomo Maital and Nobel laureate – the third the Technion traversed two Lempel data compression Amnon Frenkel, published in Technion scientist to receive World Wars, the founding algorithm; Azilect®, for Technion Nation. the world’s highest honor in of the independent State treating early-stage seven years. In many ways, of Israel, and many more Parkinson’s; deciphering Technion’s Electrical Distinguished Prof. Dan regional wars, in which the secrets of the ubiquitin Engineering and Computer Shechtman exemplifies all the Technion relentlessly protein degradation system, Science faculties led the that is Technion. adhered to its vision of or the exotic structure of birth and growth of Israel’s His discovery of scientific leadership while quasicrystals. high-tech industry. It is no quasicrystals – a new dedicating itself to the surprise that industrial form of matter – showed development, health, and Technion graduates not giants such as Google, scientific authenticity and security of the State of Israel only start businesses, they Microsoft and Intel are the courage to pursue that and humankind. also manage and lead so deeply involved with which is entirely ‘out of the them. Of Israel’s top 125 Technion, employing many box’ relative to conventional Today, Technion, with business leaders, one third students even before they understanding. His over 70,000 graduates, are Technion graduates. finish their studies. To insistence on his discovery PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2012 3 “An ambitious enterprise.” - Prof. Peretz Lavie (l-r) Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie; Cornell President Prof. David J. Skorton; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the announcement of the historic partnership, December 19, 2011. in the midst of rejection strong, exemplifies the This year, I joined Israeli and his recruitment of ingredients of Technion’s students on a visit to the scientific allies shows a global success. site of the concentration spirit of determination and camps of Auschwitz- collaboration. Throughout In December 2011, the Birkenau in Poland. Together the years Dan’s dedication world’s eyes turned once with those talented young to students and his again to Technion with people – the bright minds of cultivation of a grounded, the announcement that the future – in that desolate entrepreneurial spirit Technion and Cornell place, we were able to feel through a synthesis of University had been chosen and say to our ancestors: networking, innovation and by NY Mayor Bloomberg “It’s OK. We did it. We won.” passion to make Israel to launch the Technion- Cornell Innovation Institute Enjoy the 2012 centennial (TCII) in New York City. This issue of the President’s unprecedented venture Report. I hope you will join Technion centennial stamp is a new paradigm in us in creating the hope, issued by the Israel Postal education. TCII is positioned inspiration and excellence Company in February 2012. to energize the economy of for centuries to come. New York. It also represents Israel’s first step into academic globalization, and the impact of this new cornerstone will be felt worldwide. Prof. Peretz Lavie Technion President 4 Prof. Dan Shechtman receives the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry On December 10, 2011, of crystallography to include Technion Distinguished Prof. a new form of matter – Dan Shechtman became quasiperiodic crystals. Israel’s 10th Nobel Laureate. In his speech, after receiving Israel has four Nobel the Nobel medal from Laureates in Chemistry, of Swedish King Carl XVI which three are Technion Gustaf, the 70-year-old faculty. Sole recipient of the chemistry professor said prize, Shechtman closed a it is a scientist’s duty to circle of scientific discovery, promote education, rational isolation, progress and thinking and tolerance. The page in Dan Shechtman’s lab logbook triumph resulting in a recording his April 8, 1982, discovery. change in the classical laws PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2012 5 also known as: also known “Science is the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature, and the one word written on its banner is ‘truth’.” -Dist. Prof. Dan Shechtman, in his acceptance speech, December 2011 1982 April 8, 1982. While on sabbatical at the National Bureau of Standards in Maryland, Dan Shechtman discovered the icosahedral phase that opened the field of quasiperiodic crystals. Today, he says, he is joined by hundreds of enthusiastic scientists worldwide. “Without these dedicated scientists the field would not be where it is today.” SHECHTMANITE 6 Meeting at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)* in 1985 just months after shaking the foundations of materials science with publication of his discovery of quasicrystals, Dan Shechtman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, discusses the material’s surprising atomic structure with collaborators. From left to right are Shechtman; Frank Biancaniello, NIST; Denis Gratias, National Science Research Center, France; John Cahn, NIST; Leonid Bendersky, Johns Hopkins University (now at NIST); and Robert Schaefer, NIST. ‘Shechtmanite’ Today, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Dan Shechtman calls them quasicrystals, but back in the ’80s when the new class of matter was accepted only by a few, it was dubbed “Shechtmanite,” after the man who guided the field through conception and infancy. The name “Shechtmanite” embodied the risk of humiliation if the material would indeed turn out to be a kind of “twinning,” as Shechtman’s opponents claimed. Revealing a new kind of crystalline order, Shechtman demonstrated a clear diffraction pattern with a fivefold symmetry. The pattern was recorded from an aluminum-manganese (Al-Mn) alloy which had been rapidly cooled after melting. Shechtman’s discovery was initially viewed with skepticism. “I feared for my scientific and academic career,” ©H. Mark Helfer/NIST says Shechtman. *NIST was known as the National Bureau of Standards at the time. PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2012 7 fivefold non- repeating pattern “The system here encourages originality. We are free thinkers. This is the Israeli spirit. Free thinking encourages successful scientists.” - Dan Shechtman, Distinguished Professor and Nobel laureate In November 1984, Physical Crystallography has changed He instigated the Technion recounts. But his loyalty Review Letters published its basic definition of a crystal, course in Technological to his discovery never Shechtman’s discovery reducing it to the ability to Entrepreneurship in 1986, wavered. “A good scientist in a scientific paper co- produce a clear-cut diffraction referring to it as “my baby,” needs faith.” authored with three other pattern and acknowledging and has overseen it annually scientists: Ilan Blech (Israel), that crystallographic order can ever since. Shechtman is Denis Gratias (France) be either periodic or aperiodic. invited to lecture worldwide and John Cahn (USA). about the Technological Wider acclaim followed, The Faith of Entrepreneurship course, mainly from physicists and Good Science arousing much interest. mathematicians, and later He considers himself a from crystallographers. Dan Shechtman was born missionary, “I coordinate Pioneering contributors to in Tel Aviv on January 24, the course with pleasure. the field of quasicrystals 1941. His dream, while still I do it for Israel.” “The most important are Prof. Dov Levine of the in high school, was to study thing about the Technion Faculty of Physics at the Technion. “In 1962, I Between 2001 and 2004, and Prof. Paul Steinhardt commenced my studies in Shechtman served as quasicrystals is of Princeton University.