Celebrating Israel's 60th

It’s finally here!

After months of preparation and anticipation, we have reached the eve of the 60th Yom Ha’atzmaut: Israel Independence Day. People are already beginning to celebrate there, as it is in a later time zone. Today was spent honoring fallen soldiers for Yom Ha'zikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. 

When Israel’s independence was declared, the Technion was already 24 years old. Most of the class of 1948 fought in the War of Independence, and those graduates went on to build the infrastructure of the early state.

Some things never change. Today, though the Technion is exponentially larger and has worldwide impact, it is still the backbone of Israel’s infrastructure, science and technology innovation, and high-tech economy.

Below are some of the Technion’s and its graduates' most significant achievements during 60 years of Israel statehood. May Israel be stronger, prosperous and peaceful in the next 60 years and beyond!

• Our "Israel at 60" ad appeared in The New York Times yesterday.

  Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Technion Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover in 2004 for their research on human protein degradation, leading to the development of cancer-treating drugs.
• Heart muscle with built-in blood supply created from stem cells, which has profound implications for tissue-replacement therapy and cardiac development and function research.
• A nanowire constructed from DNA strands and metal is developed, the first of several important advancements in nanotechnology research from the late 1990’s through today.
• Dan Shechtman of the Faculty of Materials Engineering discovers a new class of materials in the 1980’s that come to be called Shechtmanite.
• The Lempel-Ziv algorithm, discovered in the 1970's and named for Profs. Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv, became the international standard for Internet data compression.
• Engineered primarily by Technion graduates, construction of Israel’s National Water Carrier is completed in the 1960’s.

Visit our special web page devoted to Israel’s 60th anniversary to read more about the Technions contributions for Israel and to watch a special video. We also invite you to submit your thoughts on this profound anniversary, which we will post there. Email info@ats.org with the subject line “Israel at 60.”