1. FromthePresident
Sea 2 Sky p.3
Mini Robot p.2
The Jewish New Year is
traditionally a time for individual and
national reflection…an opportunity
to translate our vision into action and
deeds for the coming year.
Technion is recognized as a key
strategic asset for Israel, providing
knowledge and personnel vital for
the country’s academic and research
institutions and for a strong economy.
Our vision is to be among the world’s top 10 scientific and
technological research universities, and to that end, we
continue to invest in new cutting-edge areas of education
and research; to enlist the next generation of talented
researchers and teachers as faculty members; and to attract
the best students from Israel and abroad to pursue studies in
our eighteen faculties of engineering, science, management,
architecture, and medicine.
Technion’s mission will only be realized through the active
and devoted involvement of our academic community—
faculty, students, and support staff; our partnership with our
wonderful alumni and friends in Israel and abroad; and a
strong commitment to higher education by the government
of Israel. The Technion is encouraged by the recent
recommendations of the government-appointed Shochat
committee which includes an important set of proposals
aimed to strengthen and reform the public funding of higher
education. We urge the government to adopt a New Year’s
resolution to fully implement these proposals, since Israel’s
universities will be unable to meet the challenges ahead and
maintain a high level of performance without a significant
increase in government funding.
This year Israel celebrates 60 years of sovereignty
and independence. No other institution of learning has
contributed as much to Israel’s success as has Technion—
through basic and applied research, technological
developments, and outstanding graduates, who have shaped
Israel’s modern industry and in particular its world-leading
high-tech sector which continues to amaze the technological
world with its vitality and innovation. Much of Israel’s
future is directly linked to Technion’s ability to meet the
country’s ongoing needs. Indeed, the words of Israel’s first
prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, remain as relevant today
as in 1948, “widening the scope of the Technion’s research
activities is an inestimable benefit to the current and future
technological development of Israel.”
We welcome the New Year with confidence and hope,
and wish Technion’s faculty, students, staff, and friends
around the world a year marked by happiness, prosperity,
and peace. 
Prof.Yitzhak Apeloig
Under the Sea pp.6-7
Nano Recruits p.5
Summer Science p.8
ATrue Friend
By Amanda Jaffe-Katz
World-renowned nano-
technology expert Sir
Richard Friend, Cavendish
Professor of Physics at
Cambridge University,
was the keynote speaker
at the symposium, “New
Era of Nano Devices,” at
the inauguration of the
Zisapel Nanoelectronics
Center in May 2007. Friend, knighted by the Queen in
2003 for services to Physics, pioneered the study of organic
polymers and revolutionized scientists’ understanding of
the electronic properties of molecular semiconductors. His
research is central to the development of flat panel displays
and innovative foldable screens. Sir Richard shared some of
his nanotechnology insights with FOCUS.
Water Talks
By Amanda Jaffe-Katz
“Water connects, water doesn’t divide,” said Dr András Szöllösi-Nagy,
Director of UNESCO’s Division of Water, to the research members of
the joint Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli Project (PJIP) who convened at
Technion’s Grand Water Research Institute (GWRI) in September 2007.
“The ‘S’ in UNESCO stands for ‘science.’ You may feel like you are
making a small step but it is a giant contribution,” he continued.
“Water connects, water doesn’t divide.”
The summary meeting, chaired by Prof. Emeritus Josef Hagin,
covered four years of research with the support of USAID-MERC—
U.S. Agency for International Development Middle East Regional
Cooperation Program. Even during periods of tension in the region, the
intrepid researchers pursued their scientific goals without interruption.
They met regularly in Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.
“The project is exceptional in every way,” said Dr Adam Reinhart, the
Decoding the Deep
By Amanda Jaffe-Katz
Published in Nature in September 2007, new recruit Dr Debbie Lindell and
colleagues from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) were the first
to record whole-genome expression of both a bacterium host and infecting
virus over the course of infection. The researchers investigated the marine
cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—as host—and the phage P-SSP7, in the role of
uninvited guest.
“Viruses turn their hosts into viral production factories.”
The viral (phage) genome was linearly transcribed over the course of infection,
lasting eight hours. The scientists noted that genes acquired by the phage from
its hosts, including the photosynthesis genes and genes responsible for making
DNA building blocks, were all transcribed at the same time, together with DNA
continued on Page 6...
YosiShrem
YosiShrem
I n t e r n e t : h t t p : / / w w w . f o c u s . t e c h n i o n . a c . i l
Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Division of Public Affairs & Resource Development, October 2007
Interview on Page 4...continued on Page 3...
Dr Debbie Lindell
explores how a marine
bacterium and infecting
virus coexist.
Year by year, through war and peace, challenges of
immigration and innovation, Technion has been 60 times
Israel’s devoted partner.Technion is delighted to greet the
academic year with this diamond salute to celebrate 60
years since the establishment of the State.
Zisapel
Nanoelectronics
Center

2. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
I n n o v a t i o n
Modern Alchemy
Viewpoint by Shlomo Maital
Ancient alchemists thought everything was made of four elements—
earth, air, fire, water. For centuries, they tried to turn base metals into
gold—and failed.
Modern alchemists tried to use earth, air, fire, and water to
turn black tar into gold (oil)—and succeeded. These 21st century
alchemists are Israeli. They are modern-era halutzim (pioneers) who
spent years in frigid twenty-below weather in northern Alberta on a
mission. The result may in the long run radically dilute the enormous
strategic threat Arab oil enjoys, in Israel’s and the West’s favor.
In the 1950s, the visionary David Ben-Gurion saw that Israel had
no oil but lots of sunshine. So he asked Dr Zvi Tabor, who ran the National Physical Lab, to
develop solar-powered water heaters. Today Israelis enjoy cheap hot showers as a result.
A young French-educated new immigrant in the lab, Lucien (Yehuda) Bronicki, was then
asked to design a turbine that could make electricity from solar-heated water. His small,
tough turbines became the key product of his Yavne-based start-up company, Ormat, today
a world leader in geothermal energy and low-maintenance turbines. Bronicki still runs the
company with his wife, Dita. They own 27 percent of Ormat Industries Ltd. shares. In March
2007, they established the Bronica Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at Technion in
the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management.
In September 2007, Dita and Yehuda appointed their son Yoram Bronicki as president of
Ormat.
Some experts say tar sands hold up to six trillion barrels of the world’s oil, half of all the
remaining oil in the world, most of it in Alberta and Venezuela. But how do you get fluid
gold from stuff that, according to Yoram Bronicki, “at room temperature, is as fluid as a
highway”?
Ormat sent Yoram, an engineer, to Cold Lake, Alberta, 300 km northeast of Edmonton,
as the head of a team. Their Mission Impossible task: find a commercially viable way
to produce oil from the Athabasca tar sands, in sub-zero weather. The stakes were high.
Canadian tar sands hold proven oil reserves of at least 175 b. barrels, second only to Saudi
Arabia’s 262 b. barrels, and by itself enough to supply all the world’s oil consumption for
five whole years. In September 2007, the price of oil reached $82/bbl., before dropping back
to around $80.
In Cold Lake and in Yavne, Yoram and his team invented OrCrude™, an ingenious 3-
stage process that uses fire and water (steam), air and earth (tar) to separate and upgrade the
‘wheat’ (high-grade oil) from the ‘chaff’ (low-grade bitumen). Bronicki’s team demonstrated
how to use some of the tar itself for energy to help turn the rest into fluid oil. Israeli ex-
soldiers, joined by Canadians, built and operated a pilot plant. Today a commercial plant is
being built.
“Think global, act local,” we teach managers. While in Cold Lake, Yoram learned to act
local—to skate and to play hockey. Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky had an uncanny
ability on the ice to be in the right place at the right time. So do Israel’s global halutzim.
Wherever there are business opportunities in the world, you will find Israelis. The new
generation of pioneers will continue to make Israel an important global player. 
Shlomo Maital is Professor Emeritus at the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and
serves as academic director of theTechnion Institute of Management (TIM).
Business Bytes
Biomedical Mann
During its first six months of activity the Alfred E. Mann Institute for
Biomedical Development at the Technion (AMIT) has been intensely
active in research and development of its first project and in exploring
new Technion innovations, which hold significant promise. The board
of directors approved the move of the first project—a gastro-intestinal
imaging device—to phase II and phase I funding was approved for a
new tissue adhesive for wound closure and a new cardioprotective drug.
AMIT was established in December 2006 to support the development
and commercialization of innovative biomedical technologies from the
Technion and is supported by a $100M endowment from the Alfred E.
Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering. Mann intends to establish
up to 12 Institutes in the United States, with AMIT the only one abroad.
Peer Prizes
PeerMobility took second place in BizTEC07, Technion’s annual
entrepreneurship challenge. PeerMobility aims to implement a proximity-
based communication middleware for BlueTooth and WiFi-enabled cellular
phones. The PeerMobility team includes Vadim Drabkin, Gabi Kliot, and
Prof. Roy Friedman from Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science.
In the framework of their doctoral dissertations supervised by Friedman,
the two students, together with Alon Karma, also developed WiPeer, the
free software that connects computers without the need for an intermediary
or Internet access. Since it was published, tens of thousands of users have
downloaded WiPeer from the Internet.
Chinese Medicine
As part of the initiative to rebuild Taizhou in Jiangsu Province as a
Medical City to boost China’s pharmaceutical industry and establish a
high-tech industrial park, representatives sought out Rappaport Faculty of
Medicine’s Prof. Moussa Youdim. In a June 2007 visit to Technion, the
Chinese professionals expressed an interest in collaboration with Youdim,
professor of pharmacology.
In October 2007, some 50 renowned international scientists came to
Technion to celebrate Youdim’s 45 years in science. Colleagues and
scientific collaborators from Israel, Europe, and North America discussed
the latest research and clinical achievements in the 2-day symposium,
“Recent Therapeutic Advances in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases.”
PeerMobility team (l-r) Gabi Kliot,Vadim Drabkin and Prof. Roy Friedman
Prof. Moussa Youdim (second from right) with Chinese professionals from
Taizhou Medical City.
World’s Smallest
The world’s smallest autonomous robot—with a diameter of one millimeter—
designed to travel through the bloodstream and deliver drugs has been created
atTechnion. Oded Salomon, a research engineer in the Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering’s Kahn Medical Robotics Laboratory, conceived the tiny robot
together with Prof. Moshe Shoham and Dr Nir Schwalb, aTechnion alum of
the lab and now a lecturer at the Ariel University Center.Their miniature
“submarine” can negotiate the inner walls of blood vessels using tiny arms
which will allow it to withstand blood pressure.The robot is powered by an
external magnetic field allowing it to be controlled for an unlimited amount
of time during medical procedures.A possible
application could be for brachytherapy
(short distance radiation therapy) which is
commonly used to treat prostate cancer and
cancers of the head and neck.
Salomon said,“This accomplishment of
miniaturization is without precedent, as is the
ability to control the robot’s activity for unlimited
periods of time, for any medical procedure.We hope
this discovery can be used to improve the quality of
care for diseases and many other conditions.”
YoavBacharYoavBachar
The bitumen-rich tar sands of Alberta, Canada
SuncorEnergyInc.

3. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
n e w s
Honors
Silicone Savvy
Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig, Technion president and
member of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry,
was awarded the 2007 WACKER Silicone Award
in recognition of his pioneering theoretical and
experimental work in organosilicon chemistry. Apeloig
is the first Israeli scientist to win this prize—an
important international accolade in the field. “Thanks
to his work on quantum chemistry, Yitzhak Apeloig has
made an extraordinary contribution to the fundamental
understanding of organosilicon chemistry,” said Wacker
Chemie’s CEO, Dr Peter-Alexander Wacker.
Quantum Leaps
Physics Prof. Moti Segev
received the 2007 EPS
Quantum Electronics Prize,
one of the top international
awards in the field. The
Q u a n t u m E l e c t r o n i c s
and Optics division of
the European Physical
Society awards two such prizes biennially—one
for fundamental and one for applied aspects. Segev
accepted the prize for applied aspects in Munich in June
2007, “for his outstanding and pioneering contributions
in the field of light propagation in nonlinear media, in
particular regarding spatial solitons in photorefractive
materials, incoherent solitons, and nonlinear waves in
periodic structures.” Earlier that same month, Segev
received the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award.
Young Investigator
Dr Hossam Haick of the Wolfson Faculty of
Chemical Engineering received the 2007 Bergmann
Memorial Research Award from the United States-
Israel BinationaI Science Foundation (BSF). Eligible
investigators are recipients of newly awarded BSF
grants who earned their doctoral degrees within the
past five years, are not more than 35 years old on
the date of submission, and whose project is of high
scientific quality.
King of the Road
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz appointed
Prof. Joseph Prashker from the Faculty of Civil and
Environmental Engineering as Chief Scientist of the
Ministry of Transport and Road Safety in May 2007.
Prashker, a former head of the Transportation Research
Institute at Technion, is an expert in transportation
planning and engineering.
Harvey 2 Be
On March 17, 2008, Technion will award the 2007
Harvey Prize to Prof. Michael Grätzel, who directs the
Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole
Polytechnique de Lausanne, and to Prof. Stephen
E. Harris, Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University.
The prestigious Harvey Prize, created as a bridge of
goodwill between Israel and the nations of the world, is
awarded annually to outstanding international scholars
and scientists. It is considered a good predictor of the
Nobel Prize, with 10 of its 63 recipients to date also
winning the Nobel.
(l-r) Wacker President CEO Dr Peter-Alexander
Wacker, Prof.Yitzhak Apeloig, and Dr Christoph von
Plotho, president of Wacker Silicones
Vertical Flight Victory
A Technion Aerospace Engineering team at the 2007 Annual AHS/Industry/NASA Student Design
Competition brought home top honors for the winning undergraduate project, Waterspout, a helicopter
launched from a submarine. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., the sponsor of the 24th competition, challenged
participants to design an advanced deployable compact rotorcraft, capable of operating from a submersible
vehicle, in support of Special Operations Forces.
The Technion group, who teamed with Pennsylvania State University, comprised Mor Gilad, Lior Shani,
Avida Schneller, Igor Teller, Elad Sinai, Rony Hachmon, and Avichai Elimelech, advised by Prof. Omri Rand,
dean, and Chen Friedman, research engineer. The Technion students planned Waterspout’s mechanical deck,
blade-folding mechanism, the submarine-helicopter interface, sealing
solutions, and performed water-stability analysis.
“This kind of project is a very important ingredient in the students’
education process,” explains Rand. “For them, it is a great opportunity
to integrate all the various subjects that they have studied over four
years. It is the first time they are given a description of what an aerial
vehicle should do, and they have to produce a detailed design solution
from scratch.”
“Winning the first place in this competition puts our students and
education system in the top league worldwide, which makes us very
proud,” the dean says.
The rotorcraft—a no-pilot helicopter—had to be operable in all
global weather conditions, including arctic, maritime, tropical, and typical desert conditions. Uniquely,
Waterspout is completely impermeable to water and can float in a rough sea. The autonomous vehicle takes
off vertically and can make a 260 km nonstop flight to deploy or collect crew, even if injured.
The innovative design allows the vehicle to exit through the submarine’s existing missile-silo hatch, while
in periscope depth of 15 meters. The winning entry also features stealth technology.
AHS International—The Vertical Flight Society is a professional society founded in 1943 that represents
the interests of the worldwide vertical flight industry. http://www.vtol.org 
project’s USAID scientific coordinator for the last four years. “Most of our projects are exceptional, but this is
so even by our standards. Prof. Hagin is incredible—there should be 20 of him in every university! Technion’s
scientific capacity is fantastic, and we are always hunting for more proposals from Technion,” he continued.
Prof. Emeritus Uri Shamir, the founding director of
GWRI, gave an overview of the PJIP from its inception
in 1995 as an initiative by him and supported by a
foundation active in Israel with initial funds from the
British Technion Society, and later by the Beracha
Foundation and most significantly by USAID. “We
first met in Amman on November 19, 1995,” Shamir
said. “We never lost the drive and expectation that the
project is a platform for scientific progress and regional
cooperation.”
The project demonstrated the necessity for advanced
tertiary membrane treatment of wastewater before it
can be reused or discharged to the environment. Several
types of secondary wastewater treatment produced
treated wastewater for the membrane system including constructed wetland (CW); stabilization and oxidation
ponds; and activated sludge. Introduction of membrane systems for wastewater purification on a larger scale
will considerably improve the region’s irrigation water balance and environment.
A senior member of the Palestine Research Group (PRG) spoke about the efficacy of CW in secondary
wastewater treatment, recommending it as pre-treatment, particularly suitable for rural areas as little
maintenance is required. He also spoke warmly of his appreciation for the cooperation from MERC and
GWRI, and especially thanked Hagin.
“Let’s hope for continuation of the project in
the future,” said Prof. Raphael Semiat, director
of GWRI. Semiat, who also heads the Rabin
Desalination Laboratory, gave a review of
membrane systems. “I was at that first meeting
in Amman. We didn’t know what would happen.
I talked about membranes—others thought it too
expensive, but now we see that membranes can
contribute.”
Membrane fouling was the main problem faced
by the Jordanian researchers at the National
Center for Agricultural Research and Technology
Transfer (NCARTT). They tested membrane
cleaning protocols at a pilot plant and concluded
that, since the price of reclaimed water is quite
expensive, it is not economical for small-scale
agriculture. However, they decided to use
this water on greenhouse crops to grow “very
beautiful flowers,” Hagin confirmed. 
Water ...continued from Page 1
Dr Woroud Awad of
Al Quds University
discusses wastewater
treatment and reuse.
Participants in the joint Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli Project (PJIP) fromTechnion’s Grand Water Research
Institute; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev;Volcani Institute; Palestinian Research Group;Al Quds University;
National Center for Agricultural Research andTechnologyTransfer (Jordan)
YosiShremProf.CarlosDosoretz
Confocal microscopy picture of bio-film
on nano-filtration membrane
Waterspout winning design

4. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
Super Cluster
By Amanda Jaffe-Katz
With the advent of new research fields such as
nanotechnology, the need for high performance computing
has become more acute. Requisite resources include large
memory, high floating point computing speed, and high
data throughput. A new, advanced supercluster computer
purchased by the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology
Institute (RBNI)—dubbed NANCO—will meet these
requirements.
“We are looking for ways to improve performance,”
says Dr Anne Weill-Zrahia, a well-known expert in
parallel computing, in her 4-hour NANCO introductory
course offered to all Technion students, faculty and staff
as well as potential users from outside the Technion.
The RBNI-sponsored July 2007 workshop covered the
basics of parallel computing and orientation on NANCO,
job submission, and basic MPI (a language permitting
the writing of parallel codes). Participants came from
Chemical Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering,
Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and
Biology.
Performance issues include concurrency, the ability
to perform actions simultaneously; scalability, where
performance is not impaired by increasing the number
of processors; and locality, where there is a high ratio of
local memory accesses to remote memory accesses.
“NANCO is a batch computing environment, wherein
you create a job that you wish to run (using your code
or a prebuilt application), submit that job to the system
to be scheduled to run at a later time, and get your
results upon completion,” says Weill-Zrahia of the Taub
Computer Center. She is in charge of High Performance
Computing (HPC) and her mandate now extends to
parallel programming on NANCO. At the design stage,
she characterized the most popular applications to be
run on the newly acquired supercomputer, the expected
workload, and translated this information into architecture
specifications, system management and software tools for
developers.
“We expect there will be dozens of users,” says Dr
Joan Adler of the Faculty of Physics and a member
of the academic committee for the supercomputer.
http://phycomp.technion.ac.il/~NANCO/ 
Bach’s Remedy
A novel, reusable, nano water purification method
By Barbara Frank
A
ltai Bach already knew that he wanted to do his PhD in water research when, at the end of his
undergraduate studies, he met Chemical Engineering Prof. Raphael Semiat, director of the Grand
Water Research Institute. Bach’s interest in understanding processes initially attracted him to
the field of Chemical Engineering, and water research fits in with his overall interest in ecology.
Semiat’s notion to use nanoparticles to purify wastewater sounded like a fulfilling research
project. Bach explains, “It is understood that we need to find novel solutions to water sources. Wastewater
purification is practical, affordable and ecologically friendly—
available wastewater should be purified everywhere.”
Together with Semiat and Dr Grigory Zelmanov, a researcher
in the Rabin Desalination Laboratory, Bach is researching a
new process for wastewater purification good for both industrial
wastewater and partially treated municipal sewage. Their
revolutionary method uses nanoparticles as catalysts to destroy
the organic compounds in wastewater. Most organic materials
are made of carbon and hydrogen. With an oxidizing agent, the
nanoparticles decompose the organic content so what remains is
just carbon dioxide and more water. Importantly, the nanoparticles
can be separated from the water without leaving any residue and
can be used again.
The researchers have actually worked on two different
processes, now patented, and are looking to commercialize
their groundbreaking research. The paper outlining Bach’s work
is published in the October 2007 issue of the journal, Water
Research.
Within the published scientific community, Bach says, “we are the first to use nanoparticles derived from
different kinds of metals to purify wastewater at affordable low cost.” This method is very effective and the
oxidation process is greatly speeded up in comparison with existing technologies.
The first stage is to adsorb the organic matter on an adsorbent like active carbon, loaded with the proposed
catalyst. This purifies the water from the dissolved organic matter. The nanoparticles are then put to work with
an oxidant, destroying all the organic compounds and recovering the adsorbent. The water can then be made
suitable for any purpose: from crop irrigation to drinking water, or any other use.
The current industrial process to recover the active carbon filter after it becomes saturated with the organic
material involves a high energy-consuming process (at least 800°C), or the filter has to be destroyed. The
proposed technique is simple to operate and consumes no energy, except for pumping the water. The active
carbon filters may be reused in place again and again.
Bach, 30, is married to Orit, a Technion Chemical Engineering graduate now pursuing a career in her field
with the Israeli Air Force. 
Research is conducted in theWolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, the GrandWater Research Institute, and the Rabin Desalination
Laboratory.
TEM capture of iron nanoparticles with
200 ppm concentration.The nanoparticles
catalyze the purification reaction. YosiShrem
PhD student Altai Bach
uses nanoparticles to purify
wastewater.
Q:What is your vision for nanotechnology?
A: Opportunities lie in the convergence of different branches of science. Driven by a need to
create an environment where things happen outside the regular framework, nanotechnology
occurs when chemists need to work with physicists or biologists.
Q:Which fields are important?
A: They are diverse. There have been huge advances in tools and instrumentation. At
Cambridge, we are aiming for new, useful things and a possible goal is large, cheap,
functional structures. One major topic for the future is Energy, which covers issues such as
solar cells, storage, batteries, and silica capacitors.
Q:What isTechnion’s standing in the nanotechnology world?
A: Outside of Cambridge, and along with ETH-Zurich,Technion is right there.There is virtually
a buzz about it.Two of Technion’s young faculty, Prof. Nir Tessler—an alumnus of Technion
—and Dr Gitti Frey, conducted their postdoctoral research with me at the Cavendish
Laboratory, so I can say that my past experience withTechnion graduates is wonderful!
Q:What is the significance of the newly dedicated Zisapel Nanoelectronics
Center?
A: New buildings are a response to a well-articulated vision. This remarkable building is a
visible example of external support and also of the vitality of internal activities.The vision
and desire to do good science has to come first, otherwise smart benefactors don’t respond
with bricks and mortar.Technion has a wonderful program of science and engineering.
Q:What will you lecture about today?
A: I call my talk “Plastic Electronics” and I offer a tour through the science and engineering
of what can be done with polymers which have semiconducting properties—materials that
were not traditionally regarded as part of semiconductors.This raises an interesting question:
“Is this nanotechnology?”
Q:What does Nano mean to you?
A: For me, nanotechnology is the bringing
together of different areas of science
and engineering to be able to exploit
functionality. This we can define within
a molecule or within a polymer chain
by clever processing that puts it into a
structure which will do something we find
productive. What really makes this field
interesting is the scope for new ways to
make structures.
Q: Can you tell us about your
research into displays?
A:The prototypical semiconducting polymer PPV (polyphenylene vinylene) is the ‘fruit-fly’ of
light-emitting diodes. It is a highly colored, strongly fluorescent material.With PPV, we are not
constrained to making small devices, closely packed together on a wafer of silicon, but we can
literally paint or print wherever we want.The current challenge is to generalize the concept
of ink from ‘that stuff that leaves marks on paper’ to functional materials. Ink, therefore, now
means semiconductor, and polymer disposition can be achieved by inkjet printing. A single
pass with a 3-color printer makes a full color display.
Q:What does nanotechnology hold in store for industry?
A: For me, this is practical nanotechnology: if you like, this is functionality bottled up with a
single molecule, or in our case, a polymer chain, allied with novel ways of manufacturing.
Because, in the end, it is manufacturing that makes the difference—that’s what causes
industries to happen. Far more sophisticated control of structure is absolutely possible, and
that will take the field further into the future. 
ATrue Friend ...continued from Page 1
YoavBachar
Prof. Sir Richard
Friend, keynote
speaker at the
“New Era of
Nano Devices”
symposium

5. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
T
he first PhD student in the Norman Seiden
Multidisciplinary Program for Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology is Polina Pine. She is researching
atomistic simulations of single-walled carbon
nanotube oscillators. Carbon nanotubes are long,
thin tubes made from rolled-up single sheets of graphite, and
can be grown in lengths ranging from a few nanometers to
hundreds of microns. “Experiments at the nanoscale are much
harder to carry out than experiments at longer length scales,”
says Pine and she explains that, conversely, simulations at the
nanoscale are much easier to perform than simulations at longer
length scales.
Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) based on
nanotubes have enormous potential in diverse applications,
from ultra-sensitive mass spectrometers that can be used to
detect hazardous molecules, through biological applications at
the level of a single DNA base-pair, to the study of fundamental
questions such as the interaction of a single pair of molecules.
Pine’s simulations will help scientists understand the underlying
physics of such NEMS.
“From nanotubes to novel device applications.”
“Paulina’s project, which paves the road from fundamental
understanding of carbon nanotubes to novel device applications,
is typical of the multidisciplinary nature of the program,” says
Prof. Yachin Cohen, program head.
“It is a very interesting theme,” says Pine. “I am specializing
in carbon nanotube sensors. I presented a poster on this at
the June 2007 Summer School on ‘Women-in-nano: Career
Development and Research Trends’ in Tarragona, Spain.” The
European Commission-funded school provided opportunities
for networking, establishing mentoring schemes and promoting
contact among experts from European universities, science
institutions and industry.
Pine’s toddler daughter accompanied her to Spain, causing
fellow participants—women students but also male lecturers—
to joke that she was already educating the next generation of
women in nano. “I was also asked to participate at a Round
Table session on how to achieve a satisfactory work-life
balance. I found it interesting that there is a tradition in Europe
of women in science, and they enjoy a large network of support
there,” Pine comments.
With two degrees already from Technion—in Biochemistry
and Chemistry—Pine is now jointly supervised by Dr Joan
Adler in the Faculty of Physics and by Dr Yuval Yaish from the
Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Between graduate degrees,
Pine worked at Applied Materials in Rehovot. After completing
her doctorate, she would like to stay in academia.
Pine came alone to Israel from Russia on a special program
for youngsters. “I always say, when people ask where I am
from, ‘Technion is my home in Israel.’”
“The Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute offers a very
friendly program,” Pine says. “It gives people from many different
areas the chance to sniff out what is going on in other areas.”
It seems that Pine isn’t the only one to think so: this year’s
exclusive enrollment has doubled, and there are to be seven
PhD and 25 MSc students in the program, selected out of
hundreds of applicants. 
Stories By Amanda Jaffe-Katz
Dr Nano
“It is illustrative of the incredible vitality of the Zisapel Nanoelectronics Center,”
announced Electrical Engineering Prof. Joseph Salzman in May, “inaugurated just
this morning, and already we have notification that the first workshop in the 3-year
training series—ProMiNaS—will be at Technion. This is the first international
recognition of the Zisapel Center.”
ProMiNaS (Prototyping in the Micro and the Nano Scale) offers hands-on laboratory
courses in the area of Micro- and Nanotechnology to train young researchers in the
experimental tools needed to close the gap between conventional microelectronics—
its technologies and materials, and the novel, exotic and possibly contaminating
materials and systems in nanoelectronics. Financed by the European Union (€600,000)
as part of the Marie Curie Conferences and Training Courses, the six scheduled
courses plus a final 3-day workshop take place at Technion, the Institute of Photonics
and Nanotechnology (IFN-CNR) in Rome, and the Département de Recherche sur la
Matière Condensée, CEA Grenoble, France.
The July 2007 course, held at Technion, addressed Basic Microelectronic Processing.
Participants are early in their research careers, either advanced PhD students,
postdoctoral researchers, or young engineers. The interesting aspect, Salzman says,
is their diversity in background discipline. They come from chemistry departments,
electronics, physics and optics and therefore the course provides some aspects that
are foreign to them, far removed from their previous experience. Selection criteria are
based on excellence, eventual benefit, motivation, and a letter of recommendation.
Other considerations came into play such as maintaining a 50-50 male-female ratio,
and limiting participation to three attendees per country. “We received some 60
outstanding applications and chose the 12 best. We expect that half will continue to
become university professors or heads of research labs,” says Salzman.
Salzman is in charge of the Zisapel Nanoelectronics and Wolfson Microelectronics
complex. Two years ago, as head of the microelectronics research center, he resolved
that the clean rooms would become a semi-independent unit, known as the MNFU
(Micro Nano Fabrication Unit), with independent budget and management.
Nanotechnology, in Salzmann’s view, represents a manufacturing revolution. “It is
not merely a case of micro made smaller. Nano is all about innovation: new materials,
methods, and approaches,” he says.
“Nanotechnology represents a manufacturing revolution.”
“I believe there is a Nano-Micro-Macro continuum,” Salzman says. “Assuming you
have some device or object which is the size of a few molecules—very, very small—
and assuming you want to do something to it and measure this, you need contact with
the external world. Even in the nano dimension you have to go through the micro scale
for contact with the outside world.”
Each morning the 12-day course started with a 2-hour lecture covering the
theoretical background of that day’s lab work. Then, participants rotated among
three parallel lab sessions, instructed by Technion PhD students. Each of the many
specialized machines in the MNFU facility represents a discipline in science. Topics
included photolithography for small-scale patterning; carving with the etching
apparatus; metallization; and oxidation. Altogether, the
participants received 25 hours of frontal lectures and 40
hours hands-on in the clean room.
Participants included Felix Martinez, a postdoctoral
scholar from Cartagena, a city on Spain’s southern coast.
“Technion is such a beautiful campus,” he said. “The smell
of the pine trees here reminds me of the Mediterranean.”
Other attendees came from Malaysia, Romania, Turkey,
France, Italy, UK, and Germany.
The second ProMiNaS course, held in Rome in October
2007, addressed Single Electron Transistors and Photonic
Crystals. Those participants who had previously attended
the Technion course benefited from the basic skills they had
gained in Clean Room work.
“With the diversity, capabilities, and brains we have in our
academic institutions, we must continue this international
collaboration to disseminate the interdisciplinary aspects
of nanotechnology and to educate future engineers and
researchers in the new emerging fields of high technology. It
is our hope that others will follow this effort to materialize
nanotechnology know-how,” Salzman concluded. 
The Nano Generation
YosiShrem
Computational nanoelectronics
pioneer, PhD student Polina
Pine, unravels her poster on
carbon nanotube sensors.
YoavBachar
International participants at
the ProMiNaS workshop gain
hands-on experience atTechnion’s
state-of-the-art clean-rooms in
the Zisapel Nanoelectronics and
Wolfson Microelectronics facilities.
Coming Soon...

6. u n d e r t h e s e a
T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
replication genes, even though this meant that some were expressed out-of-sequence.
The researchers hypothesize that the bacterial-like genes form a functional module that
help the phage obtain sufficient energy for DNA replication.
A unique finding among phage–host interactions was the up-regulation of about 40
host genes—as opposed to total shutdown during infection. Intriguingly, many of these
upregulated genes were transferred to the host from phages.
Lindell explains, “These results show that genes transferred between hosts and
phages are expressed in the recipient organism suggesting that on evolutionary scales,
the exchange of genes between host and virus is beneficial to both organisms for life
in the ocean, even though individual infected bacteria may die.”
“I always liked water, the sea, and diving,” says Lindell, now a leading researcher
in the field of marine microbial ecology who grew up in Melbourne, Australia. “I
am interested in the effects of environmental factors on the physiology of marine
microorganisms and how, in turn, this impacts their population dynamics, diversity
and evolution.” Her research focuses on marine cyanobacteria—aquatic bacteria that
photosynthesize (gobble up light for energy).
“Cyanobacteria are a major component of the phytoplankton which produce
approximately 50 percent of the world’s oxygen and are the basis of the oceanic food
web,” says Lindell. They play an important role in reducing the level of atmospheric
carbon dioxide which they use to make organic carbon, helping to ease the effect of
this gas on global climate change. “Without them, the oceans—and the world—would
look quite different.”
“Without cyanobacteria, the world would look quite different.”
Lindell studies the interactions between cyanobacterial hosts and their viruses,
analyzing how these interactions impact cyanobacteria at the ecological, physiological
and evolutionary levels. Viruses can’t reproduce outside of another organism, and their
specialty is to turn their cellular
hosts into viral production
factories. “While we understand
how this happens in a few
model laboratory host–phage
systems, our understanding of
this process in environmentally
relevant host–virus systems
is practically nonexistent. I
envisage that I’ll be studying
these interactions over the
next 10 years or so in order to
better understand the impact
phages have on the ecology and
evolution of their hosts,” she
says.
Lindell joined the Technion’s
Faculty of Biology in October
2006, after a postdoctoral appointment at MIT. Research carried out by Lindell
and colleagues at MIT and published in PNAS in 2004, showed the existence of
photosynthesis genes in the genomes of several phages that infect Prochlorococcus.
“This surprising finding prompted me to change the focus of my research temporarily,”
Lindell says. “I wanted to know what the phages are doing with those genes—did they
get them from the host? Are they functional in photosynthesis during infection? Do
they confer a fitness advantage to the phage?”
“This was not just a fluke event. A full 80 percent of cultured cyanobacterial viruses
that we observed have these genes,” says Lindell, “and viral photosynthesis genes
are extremely abundant in the environment” [see accompanying story on Prof. Oded
Béjà’s research]. While the virus hijacks the cell to ensure its own reproduction, it
seems to need photosynthesis to continue for a little longer. These viral genes are
expressed during infection and may augment photosynthesis during this time, giving
the phage an extra energy boost to enhance its reproduction. This hypothesis still
needs to be tested experimentally.
Host–virus systems play a significant evolutionary role by facilitating gene transfer
between species. “The impact of gene transfer mediated by phages is a hot topic
in microbiology as we are coming to realize the pivotal role phages have played in
shaping the genomes of their hosts,” Lindell concludes. 
Dr Debbie Lindell is a recipient of the Marie Curie Reintegration Grant from the European Union, the
Legacy Heritage Fund grant (Morasha) from the Israel Science Foundation, the Alon Fellowship from
the Council for Higher Education, and the Technion’s Mallat Family Fund and Robert J. Shillman Career
Advancement Chair.
Decoding
P
rof. Oded Béjà of the Faculty of Biology is a world leader in the
burgeoning research discipline of environmental genomics. This exciting
field, also known as microbial ecogenomics or metagenomics, explores
parts of the ocean that were, until recently, hidden from us. Béjà’s mandate
is, “To illuminate the role of microorganisms in the open seas,” and to
that end his lab uses innovative molecular biology techniques, along with functional
genomics and bioinformatics.
Recently, Béjà has been taking a close look at photosynthesizing genes in a virus
that attack cyanobacteria that live in the sea. These bacteria—named for their blue
color, cyan—obtain their energy through photosynthesis. The discovery of such genes
in the genomes of the virus (or phage) that infect these cyanobacteria suggests new
paradigms for the regulation, function and evolution of photosynthesis in the vast
ecosystem of the open sea [see accompanying story on Dr Debbie Lindell’s research].
Revolutionary findings related to this viral photosynthesis directly from natural
ocean samples were published online by Béjà in August 2007 in the ISME Journal:
Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology, a new journal issued by the Nature
Publishing Group.
“Using environmental genomics we show that about 60 percent of the psbA genes
(photosynthesis genes coding for the D1 protein) in surface waters in the oceans are
of viral origin,” said Béjà. “Furthermore, we show that different viral psbA genes are
expressed in the environment.”
To put the significance of this research into perspective, Béjà says, “Fifty percent
of photosynthesis in the world is done in the sea, and 50 percent of this is done by
cyanobacteria.” Béjà’s research analyzes, directly in the environment, cyanobacteria
of the Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus types, both important contributors to
photosynthetic productivity in the open ocean. Moreover, the large amounts of oxygen
in the atmosphere were likely first created by the activities of ancient cyanobacteria.
“To illuminate the role of microorganisms in the open seas.”
The most critical protein in photosynthesis, D1, is a scaffold on which everything
sits. It suffers from photo-damage, and requires turnover. “We found that some of the
viruses that attack cyanobacteria contain modified D1 protein” Béjà explains. The
researchers showed that the phage genes are undergoing an independent selection for
distinct D1 proteins. Furthermore, the D1 found in the virus is slightly different from
that of its bacterial host. This anomaly is found on one of the loops, and probably
makes it more stable to degradation.
The Technion team and their colleagues are exploring the changes in the function of
the expressed D1 gene as it passes from the cyanobacteria to the virus and back again.
“My hope is to find the role of this photosynthesis protein in the virus,” Béjà says, “to
prove that this process does occur in the ocean—and in measurable quantities.”
The Technion team includes researchers in the Faculties of Biology, Chemistry, and
DNA linguistics and bioinformatics experts from the Lokey Interdisciplinary Center
for Life Sciences and Engineering. A co-author on the paper is J. Craig Venter, who
held a pivotal role in the Human Genome Project. 
Prof. Oded Béjà received the 2007 Henry Taub Prize for Academic Excellence for his predominant role
in establishing the new research field of Environmental Genomics.
Science of the OceansBy Amanda Jaffe-Katz
Dr Debbie Lindell regularly samples the water in
the Red Sea and will begin a sampling program in
the Mediterranean Sea shortly.
...continued from Page 1
Prof. Oded Béjà tests the waters
in the Dead Sea.
Phage Fast Facts
• Viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages (phages)
• Phages are the most abundant biological organisms in the oceans
• Viruses can only reproduce inside a host organism
• Viruses act as a reservoir of genes transferable between species

7. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
ImproveYour Image
Electrical Engineering graduate student Tali Treibitz is lucky to be able to combine
work with pleasure. Treibitz is a scuba diving instructor, a skill which turned out to
be a prerequisite for her PhD research on “Recovering Visibility in Scattering Media
under Artificial Illumination.” Treibitz’s research, which is conducted under the
guidance of Dr Yoav Schechner, involves complex diving skills and special equipment:
a camera, light source, a tripod with added weights, and photography accessories, as
well as a lift bag, a unique device used to lift heavy objects from the ocean floor.
Treibitz graduated from the Faculty of Computer Science in 2001 in the Chais
Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students. Later she worked in the high-tech industry,
and traveled abroad for a year—a trip that happily included many scuba dives—before
she returned to the Technion to start graduate studies.
While searching for a research topic, Treibitz was immediately drawn to research
integrating computer vision, photography and physical effects. When she discovered
Schechner’s research on creating solutions to imaging problems in scattering media—
media containing light scattering particles—she knew the match had been made. Her
work also has defense-related applications, and can address port and ship inspection,
aerial imaging and more.
“A clear picture, with better visibility and contrast.”
Treibitz’s doctoral research deals with solutions to problems that arise when
imaging in scattering media under artificial illumination. “My work is related to vision
though water, haze, or fog,” says Treibitz. Her current work is to develop methods for
underwater visibility enhancement. She will soon advance from processing underwater
stills to solving issues related to underwater videos.
“Every underwater photo suffers from light scattering and light absorption
problems,” Treibitz explains. “But in photography that utilizes artificial light—as
opposed to photography under natural illumination—light scattering problems are
much more severe because of the powerful light source used. Since water is a type of
scattering medium, its particles
scatter light into the camera.
These reflections (termed
backscatter) ‘take over’ the
picture—and we end up seeing
the light beam in the picture,
instead of the imaged object.”
She continues, “In order to
decrease the influence of the
backscatter in photography, we
use a polarized light source.
First, the picture is partially
‘cleaned up’ by mounting a
polarizer on the camera. The
mounted polarizer blocks
part of the partially polarized
backscatter, whereas reflected
light from the object is less
polarized and thus passes
through the polarizer. We have
developed a way to make the beam disappear in a more significant manner. This is
done by taking two images of the same scene, with two different polarization states,
and then post-processing the image pair. Our approach results in a clear picture, with
better visibility and contrast.”
Treibitz presented “Instant 3Descatter” at the IEEE Computer Society Conference
on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, IEEE CVPR, in 2006. Treibitz and
Schechner have recently started international scientific collaboration with researchers
at the University of Miami and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 
DrYoav Schechner joined theTechnion’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 2002 as a Landau Fellow in
the Leaders in Science andTechnology Program.
Micro Miracle
How an invertebrate masters the art of body building
A
lthough the ability to grow a whole new body from a
fragment is typically restricted to simple life forms such
as sponges, worms, and jellyfish, “Massive regeneration is
not just confined to low-complexity animals but can take
place in highly evolved animals, too,” according to Dr
Ram Reshef of Technion’s Faculty of Biology.
Investigating the phenomenon in our closest invertebrate relative, the
sea squirt Botrylloides leachi, Reshef, his PhD student Yuval Rinkevich,
and colleagues, shed light on the molecular signals underlying the squirt’s
whole body regeneration (WBR). In a process resembling the early stages
of embryonic development, an adult sea squirt can be reconstructed from
a miniscule blood vessel fragment in as little as 10 days. The results were
published in April 2007 in the journal PLoS Biology.
“Stem cells culminate in an entire organism.”
The scientists reported the unique way in which the squirt achieves
WBR. “When less complex groups regenerate their bodies, they do so
through what we call a blastema, which is a kind of tissue that forms right
at the place where you want to regenerate an organ or body,” Reshef said.
The sea squirts, however, did not employ blastemas. Rather, regeneration
began from dozens of tiny compartments loaded with stem cells, which
the researchers dubbed regeneration niches. “In mammals, many adult
organs and tissues contain specific stem cells that are involved in repair
and some restricted regeneration abilities,” Reshef said. “The huge
difference here is that the stem cells culminate in an entire organism.”
The researchers found that the addition of retinoic acid (RA, a vitamin
A derivate) regulates diverse developmental aspects in WBR. The sea
squirt’s WBR process could serve as a new in vivo model system for
regeneration, suggesting that RA signaling may have had ancestral roles
in body restoration events, the scientists concluded. 
Sea squirts (also called “tunicates” after their tough outer
tunic) are widely distributed in shallow coastal waters,
including along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, as colonies
of genetically identical individuals called “zooids.”
Backscatter greatly degrades visibility:A raw
underwater image taken with artificial illumination.
The result ofTaliTreibitz’s method—the
restored imaged object, without backscatter.
TaliTreibitz dives with tripod
and lift bag in the Red Sea.

8. T e c h n i o n F o c u s O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7
Outreach
Chemistry Olympics
Two members of the Israeli team,
Assaf Shapira and Itamar Shamai, won
Silver and Bronze medals at this year’s
International Chemistry Olympics held
in July 2007 in Moscow and attended
by representatives from 72 countries.
Coached by members of Technion’s
Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, four
Israeli participants made it to the
international finals from among the
6,000 first-stage 11th- and 12th-
grade contestants. National winners
earn exemption from their Chemistry
matriculation exams along with a
grade of 100 percent, and free first
year tuition at Technion. The team was
accompanied to the competition by
Prof. Moris Eisen and Dr Iris Barzilai.
Summer Science
In August 2007, 68 students attended
Technion’s international 3-week science
and technology summer research
program, SciTech—now in its 16th
year. The 55 international participants
included 11th- and 12th-grade students
from Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary,
Italy, Poland, UK and the USA. The
youngsters chosen are those who have
shown an exceptional interest and
ability in science and technology. They
conduct research projects on campus,
guided by Technion staff. This year’s
SciTech winning presentations and
posters covered diverse topics such as
Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derived
Cardiomyocytes, Hand Gesticulation
Recognition, Re–Presenting the Urban
Image, and Creating 3D Video.
Prime Numba
The first campus summer program
in number theory, dubbed TOMBA,
took place in August 2007. The
25 outstanding 9th- to 12th-graders
selected by the academic committee
were divided into groups of three,
each group supervised by a Technion
student. Number theory is a classical
field of mathematics which deals
with the exploration of properties of
the natural numbers with which we
are so familiar: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… The 2-
week program also included social
and recreational activities, as well as
advanced lectures by researchers in
number theory, open to the general
public. TOMBA also presents an
opportunity to integrate talented—
but socioeconomically challenged—
students into the scientific world. Dr
Yossi Cohen, Prof. Moshe Baruch and
Prof. Jack Sonn initiated and organized
TOMBA with the help of the Faculty
of Mathematics.
“They are competing for a $5,000
prize from World ORT, which will be
awarded at the end of the camp to the
boy or girl who solved the greatest
number of problems in the best way,
but also helped others find solutions.
We are pleased to see that aside from
the studies, a real social experience has
been created and we hope to see them
at the Technion in future years,” says
Cohen.
Technion FOCUS is published by the Division of Public Affairs and Resource Development
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000 Israel
Tel: 972-4-829-2578 pard@tx.technion.ac.il www.focus.technion.ac.il
VP Resource Development and External Relations: Prof. Peretz Lavie
Director, Public Affairs and Resource Development: Shimon Arbel
Head, Department of Public Affairs: Yvette Gershon
Editors: Amanda Jaffe-Katz, Barbara Frank Photo Coordinator: Hilda Favel
Design: www.vistaspinner.com
(l-r) Californians Laura Scharff and Aryeh Canter take
samples at the constructed wetlands pilot site to assess
how aquatic plants can reduce industrial contaminants in
wastewater.
People of the Book
An impressive bronze sculpture, Books and the Written Word, stands
tall in Kislak Park at the center of theTechnion campus—an inspiration
to all students.As can be seen in the photograph, it depicts a book
from which letters in various alphabets emerge.The majestic oeuvre
was dedicated in the presence of the donor, entrepreneur Leonid Raiz,
his wife Alexandra, the world-renowned sculptor Boris Zaborov, and
architects Shaul Kaner and Michael Seltser.
“This is a fitting monument to the importance of the book to Jews—the
People of the Book,” said Zaborov who was born in Minsk and, since
1980, lives and works in Paris.
Raiz immigrated to the USA in 1980 from the former Soviet Union. He
became involved in the application of computers for design automation
and developed highly successful computerized software for architectural
design that is now used worldwide.
Silver medalist Assaf Shapira does lab work in Moscow
at the International Chemistry Olympics. Shapira is a
12th-grader at Haifa’s Hugim High School, where Nobel
Laureate in ChemistryTechnion Distinguished Prof.Aaron
Ciechanover was a student.
Solving mathematical problems: Participants at
Technion’s NumberTheory Summer Camp (TOMBA).
YosiShrem
ShlomoShohamGustavoHochman
Girl on the Moon
“Would you want to return to the moon?” 14-year-old Rami asked
former astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to land on the moon
almost exactly 38 years ago. “Of course,” Armstrong replied, on his
first ever visit to Israel, and asked the youngster if he would like to
come along.
This was one of many moving moments experienced by some 100
youngsters, who came to MadaTech—Israel National Museum of
Science, Technology Space to get a first-hand glimpse of the man
who made history. In Israel at the invitation of the Direct Investment
House, a relaxed Neil Armstrong, aged 77 and exuding tremendous
vitality, answered a range of personal and professional questions that
were asked in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Armstrong’s advice for
those children who might want to be astronauts one day: “A very good
education, particularly in the fields of science and mathematics.”
Armstrong visited the Museum’s display on Ilan Ramon, Israel’s
first astronaut, who lost his life in the Columbia space shuttle crash.
The exhibit combines Ramon’s personal items with explanations on
scientific experiments Ramon conducted in space—one of which was
instigated by a group of school students under Technion supervision.
Asked about the lasting value of space flights, Armstrong explained
that “they demonstrate that we humans will not be forever chained to
planet Earth.”
Reminiscent of Albert Einstein’s 1923 planting of a palm tree here—
the original Technion campus—Armstrong planted a tree fronting the
Einstein Exhibition Hall. 