An open source
of Excellence
Out of the mission to be of service to the country and humankind for the global good, both the freedom of pure scientific thought and the process of application are critical. This requires moving from a living dimension of unlimited potential through layers of limitation. In these processes of negotiating time, space and speed, innovation is born. Yet it always starts with the unlimited.
Here at Technion, innovation is in our DNA. It is encoded in our mission and purpose. Through generations, we have learned through experience the depth of the wisdom of Albert Einstein, chairman of the first Technion Society, that: “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Out of the unlimited mind, new ideas are born, which include new ways of thinking, new concepts and new methods. This requires openness and overview, both of which require some freedom in space and time. This year has seen breakthrough discoveries in areas ranging from energy research, to advanced medicine, through to quantum mechanics. At the same time, this has been a historic year in transcending the limitations of national borders.
In December, Technion and Shantou University in Guangdong Province, China, made history with the groundbreaking of Israel’s first ever institute of higher education in China: Guangdong TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology (GTIIT). Made possible through a magnanimous gift of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, GTIIT will offer high-level, innovative, researchoriented undergraduate and graduate education. It represents a portal of pure potential for unlimited innovation, spanning east and west and bridging the academic map of today with the academic needs of the future.
Across the globe in New York City, this year also celebrated the consolidation and flowering of the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. The Institute today promotes and leverages a synergy between its parent institutions to offer a global perspective on technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurship. To honor the momentous initiation of the game-changing institute in NYC, Technion conferred an honorary doctorate on the project’s visionary, former NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at the Technion Benefit Gala in New York City.
At home at Technion, we do all we can to facilitate and promote collaboration and research across the traditional limits of individual disciplines. Research now and in the future will be done by people who can bridge between different fields of science. From high impact research into energy science, technology and engineering at the Grand Technion Energy Program, through to the nano dimension at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), and on to the frontiers of quantum science, we are empowering research beyond limits.
As you will read in this report, the results are tremendously exciting, giving insight after insight into the way in which the science of today will impact our world tomorrow.
Prof. Peretz Lavie
President