On the eve of Israel’s 78th Independence Day, Prof. Uri Sivan says the Technion sees ‘Israel’s security, Israel’s economy, and Israel’s society’ as central to its work, even as war, reserve duty and academic boycotts test the institution’s resilience

As Israel remains at war and many of its students continue to cycle between campus and reserve duty, those guiding them see their mission extending beyond academic excellence alone to include the needs of the state itself.

Speaking ahead of Israel’s 78th Independence Day, Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan says the country’s flagship engineering school has long seen itself as part of the state’s national backbone.

Interview with Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan

“We consider Israel’s security, Israel’s economy and Israel’s society as part of our mission,” Sivan said in an interview with ynet Global. “It’s not that anybody imposed that on us. But that’s how we feel.”

Sivan, who has led the Technion since 2019, said the answer came into focus after he was asked early in his presidency what makes the institution different from other universities in Israel and from elite engineering schools in the United States.

At first, he said, he thought of the usual measures: research, rankings, Nobel laureates and teaching. But eventually he concluded there was a third dimension.

“Every morning when I sit at my desk, I have Israel’s security, Israel’s economy and Israel’s society on my mind,” he said. “It dictates many of my decisions. So we’re mission driven.”

The Technion, which opened in 1924, predates the state of Israel by roughly a quarter-century. For Sivan, that history helps explain why the institution still sees itself as carrying responsibilities beyond campus.

Among the university’s many contributions, Sivan pointed to Nobel Prize-winning research, drug development linked to the work of its laureates and the Ziv-Lempel data compression algorithm. But when asked which Technion-linked innovation stands out most to him, he chose something simpler.

“My favorite is actually the simplest one,” he said. “And that’s drip irrigation, just a plastic hose and pores that don’t clog.”

Calling it a world-changing innovation, Sivan said it now helps feed “over 1 billion people in arid areas around the globe.”

The interview came against the backdrop of war, which has disrupted daily life across Israel but, Sivan said, has not stopped the university’s work. He said the Technion has never shut its doors during major wars, from World War II to the present day. “Technion never closed its doors,” he said.

That continuity, he said, reflects both the institution’s commitment to the state and the demands placed on it by Israeli society. “Israel depends on our engineers, on our scientists, medical doctors, architects, educators,” Sivan said.

But he also acknowledged the toll of war on students called up for reserve duty. Drawing on his own experience as a reserve pilot during the 1982 war, Sivan recalled returning briefly for final exams and feeling disconnected from ordinary life.

“I remember this feeling of being strange to the rest of the world because reality just goes on,” he said. “Your colleagues who stayed in the university just kept studying.”

That memory, he said, has shaped the university’s response to thousands of reservists among its student body. “I know exactly how those reservists feel,” Sivan said. “We are committed to making it work so that one’s not an obstacle to the other and that’s remarkable here. We owe them.”

He said the university’s priority has been to keep those students from falling off track academically while also expanding emotional and psychological support. “The most important thing was just to keep them on track,” he said. “We supported them financially … we put together an extensive academic support system. We essentially tailor the curriculum for each of them.”

הטכניון
The Technion (Photo: Shutterstock)

The Technion also expanded psychological services and trained staff to identify trauma and post-trauma symptoms, he said, adding, “We try to provide, to embrace them, to provide them with an extensive support.”

Sivan also described the university as having a broader obligation beyond Israel’s borders, particularly at a time of rising antisemitism on campuses abroad. “We always considered ourselves as the engineering school of the Jewish people, not just the state of Israel,” he said.

In response, he said, the Technion has opened opportunities for students and faculty from abroad and launched a first-year program in English for those seeking what he called an “antisemitism-free environment.”

At the same time, he said, academic boycotts and hostility toward Israeli institutions remain a serious concern. “This is a major challenge for us because academia depends on collaboration, academic exchange of ideas, and so on,” Sivan said. “Openness and inclusivity is part of the academic spirit.”

Rather than retreat, he said, the Technion is to blunt the damage by deepening formal partnerships abroad and expanding its ties to industry. He pointed to the Resnick-backed collaborative science program with Caltech and to the longstanding Cornell partnership, including Cornell Tech and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York, as examples of alliances meant to preserve research exchange and joint innovation even as parts of the academic world grow more hostile to Israeli institutions.

The pressure, he suggested, is not merely theoretical: in New York politics, Zohran Mamdani has called for a boycott of Cornell Tech because of its ties to the Technion, explicitly framing the issue through BDS logic. “It’s painful,” Sivan said, “but we are trying to mitigate those.”

His final summary of the institution’s stance was terse and unmistakable. “We are very stubborn,” he said.

Jacob Nagel on the U.S.-Israel War With Iran:
Threats, Strategy, and an Unprecedented Alliance

Prof. Jacob Nagel is a brigadier general (res.) and former acting national security adviser and head of Israel’s National Security Council. He has twice chaired government-appointed Nagel Committees, including the most recent commission established after the October 7 Hamas attack, which delivered strategic and budgetary recommendations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the IDF’s force buildup and long-term defense posture. A key figure behind Israel’s decision to develop the Iron Dome missile defense system, he is currently a professor at the Technion, where he heads the Center for Security Science and Technology and leads advanced defense research initiatives.

In a candid webinar held nine days after the war with Iran began, Brig. Gen. (res.) Prof. Jacob Nagel offered a sobering assessment, outlining what he described as the regime’s core threats, Israel’s military and intelligence achievements, and the cooperation between Israel and the United States.

Nagel began by defining what he called the four central threats posed by Iran — not only to Israel, but to the entire Middle East, the U.S., and the wider world. “The four main threats are, of course, the nuclear capability; ballistic missiles — including, in the future, intercontinental ballistic missiles; UAVs, drones, and cruise missiles; and continuous terror support by the Iranian regime,” he said. A fifth danger, he added, is “the threat of depressing the Iranian people,” as the regime diverts national wealth away from its citizens and toward military aggression and terror proxies.

At the heart of Nagel’s analysis was the conviction that military action alone is insufficient if the regime itself remains in place. “If the regime stays, after we finish this round, we’ll have to do it again,” he warned. “Maybe not in eight months — maybe in 18 months — but we’ll have to do it again.” For Nagel, success must be measured not only by battlefield achievements but by whether those gains endure.

He acknowledged that there are nuanced differences between Israeli and American leadership styles but stressed that strategic alignment remains firm. “The cooperation between Israel and the United States is unprecedented,” Nagel emphasized, spanning intelligence sharing, operational planning, technology, and logistics.

Nagel pointed to Iran’s energy sector as a central vulnerability. Oil and gas revenues, he noted, fund the regime’s military ambitions and terror activities. “Instead of taking this money for their people and making Iran one of the most flourishing countries in the world, they are making it one of the poorest and one of the worst places to live,” he said. Decisions around whether and how deeply to target Iran’s economic infrastructure are complex, but potentially transformative.

Reflecting on the opening days of the war, Nagel described what he called three major achievements thus far. The first was operational capability: air power, intelligence, space technology, communications, and logistical support working in concert. The second was political and international coordination, particularly the deepening partnership between Jerusalem and Washington. The third, and in his view most consequential, was intelligence superiority.

“It’s not magic,” Nagel said of Israel’s intelligence achievements. “It’s 10, 15, sometimes 20 years of very specific work.” Thousands of people, he explained, labor behind the scenes to ensure readiness long before conflict erupts. Iran, he argued, failed to grasp the depth of that capability.

“Israel surprised Iran,” he said. “They learned a lot about technology, but they didn’t learn about our intelligence superiority.”

BRIG. GEN (RES.) PROF. JACOB NAGEL

Nagel also highlighted the Technion’s central role in underpinning Israel’s technological edge. Many of the systems deployed today, he noted, began development more than a decade ago and were advanced by Technion alumni working across Israel’s defense and technology sectors. “I’ll be humble,” he said, “but I know that about 80% of all defense technologies were developed by Technion graduates.”

From air-defense systems such as Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow to emerging laser technology, Nagel stressed that innovation saves lives. “People said Iron Dome would never work,” he recalled. “It works. It saves lives.”

On the diplomatic front, Nagel described constant, high-level coordination between Israeli and American leaders, underscoring the depth of consultation shaping decisions on both strategy and timing. While not willing to elaborate, Nagel also mentioned implicit messages being sent to China, Russia, and North Korea, and the strategic importance of Taiwan.

While much of his focus was on Iran, Nagel also turned briefly to Lebanon, arguing that Hezbollah’s actions have backfired strategically. “If I were an investor looking for ROI,” he said, “the worst investment Iran ever made is in its terror organizations.”

Hezbollah’s failure to decisively aid Iran during last June’s 12‑day conflict, he suggested, altered regional calculations and opened new — if fragile — possibilities for change. By entering the war now, Hezbollah “dug themselves into a deep hole,” he said, giving Israel “the legitimacy to attack deeply into Lebanon.” As a result, Lebanon’s prime minister, for the first time in the country’s history, appealed to Europe and the U.S. to help broker direct peace negotiations with Israel.

Nagel closed with a stark reminder. Iran’s leadership, he believes, is unlikely to surrender voluntarily.

“Only the people of Iran can take the country from them… and they can’t do it alone.”

Whether that moment comes soon or far later remains uncertain, but for Israel and its allies, preparation, unity, and long-term resolve are essential.

Hear from Brig. Gen (res.) Prof. Jacob Nagel directly in this webinar recording.

Soon after the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, N.M. was called to the south to help secure the kibbutzim and other communities near the Gaza border, and to rescue those who may have been wounded or hiding in fear. The operation was the nation’s top priority. For N. it was the start of what he calls “a second reality.”

“Since that day, every person in Israel has had to mix normal life with war, and I am no different.” He was both a reserve combat soldier, who served more than 250 days on the front, and a Technion computer science undergrad — in that order. “From the quiet of the classroom I suddenly found myself back in uniform fighting in Gaza,” he said.

His first mission was to clear the southern communities of Hamas, to bring back control and a sense of security for the civilians who lived there. “We moved house by house, making sure there were no more terrorists and that people could be evacuated or return safely.”

But as he walked through the ruins of burnt kibbutzim and bullet-riddled cars, he thought about the victims: “What did they feel? What were they going through in those moments when it all happened? You look at their belongings and try to guess, ‘Who is this family whose table is set for the holiday?’ You look at that table and pray that the army managed to reach the house before the enemy did.”

Later, when Hamas was pushed back and the situation was more stable, N. and his unit helped the IDF prepare for the ground invasion in Gaza. This meant fighting in several hot spots to ensure Israel’s soldiers could move as safely as possible. “For me, this period was about doing everything I could to protect my country and the people who live here.”

Even those not in uniform experienced fear and hardships. His partner stayed home, “but she went through a lot of loneliness, worry, and a strong feeling that she had no control over what was happening,” he said. “Of course, she was also afraid to lose me.”

Soldiers in his unit were given only a few minutes every few days to talk with their family, and these calls were often quite emotional. N. recalled struggling to sound calm on the phone when war was exploding around him. “When I think about the impact of the war, I see not only the soldiers at the front, but also the families who stand behind us and pay a very heavy price in silence.”

All the while, N. felt divided between his academics and the reality of war. “The Technion became a kind of ‘second reality,’ a picture of normal life inside the chaos,” he said. Taking books with him to the front, he said, “I tried to stay connected to my future by studying in short breaks. It was a way to hold on to normal life and to the future I am building.”

Returning to campus also was not easy. “Life resumed. Students filled the corridors, the coffee shops were busy, exams returned to the calendar. But inside, I carried memories, worries, and the names of friends who were still in uniform or who did not come back.”

The Technion stood by him as it did for all returning soldiers, making special adjustments such as providing extra exam dates, help with catching up on material he missed, and access to recordings of lectures.

“I never felt that I was left alone to choose between serving my country and pursuing my education.”

In Israel, serving in the military is a lifelong commitment. N. has learned to integrate its challenges into the whole of his life — and is hopeful. “You learn to tell the people you love that you love them, and how important they are to you … And to not lose faith that a better future is waiting,” he said.

“Continuing my degree is another way to protect and strengthen Israel, this time with knowledge and innovation instead of a rifle.”

In addition to fatigue and increased hunger, living with constant sleep deprivation and stress has other effects, some long-term. Experts explain the risks – and how to limit the damage, or at least some of it

By now, this has become a daily challenge: how many hours of sleep can one get in a night riddled with air-raid alerts, racing to shelter and attempts at shuteye before being woken up again. And not just how many hours in total, but also how long one can sleep uninterrupted. All this comes before the real challenge – staying awake during the day, functioning as normally as possible and perhaps even forgetting – until the next siren – that this is an open-ended state of emergency. 

This reality has direct and indirect health implications, some immediate and clearly felt in the ability to function and in planning and concentration. In the longer run, this stressful reality, marked by constant alertness and sleep deprivation, could have a cumulative effect on other bodily systems, including the immune and cardiovascular systems, as well as mental health. 

“The professional term for what has been happening now is ‘sleep deprivation’ due to air-raid alerts,” says Prof. Yaron Dagan. “This deprivation harms two main things: one is cognitive – that is to say, everything related to thinking, perception, problem-solving, concentration and memory; the other is emotional – people are gloomier, less patient, and generally in a worse mood, which sometimes results in reckless decision-making.”

Dagan, director of the Institute for Sleep Medicine at Assuta Medical Centers, explains that healthy sleep is crucial for waking life, particularly for our cognitive system, “which reboots brain memory in order to clear it for the next 24 hours. This activity takes place in several areas in the brain, and without uninterrupted or adequate sleep – the processes served by sleep are impaired.” One stage of sleep, he emphasises, is crucial for emotional processing, learning and memory formation. “This stage occurs in 90-minute cycles, and with sleep deprivation it’s disrupted, affecting our thinking and behaviour when awake.”

Is there anything that can be done, considering that it is entirely unclear how long this routine will continue? Perhaps a nap here and there? “In principle, sleep is not a bank – you cannot not sleep for a week and then fill the deficit by sleeping for a week,” says Dagan. “What we recommend is what’s called a ‘combat nap’ – a planned 30-45-minute nap to replenish your batteries. Even if someone can’t doze off, simply lying down, closing one’s eyes and relaxing is enough. This is the best way to deal with this sleep deprivation. It cannot fully replace nighttime sleep, but it certainly helps you feel refreshed.” 

Proper or healthy sleep is not just a matter of quantity; uninterrupted sleep is just as important as getting enough hours. “Sleep that is too short or interrupted – both have the same effects and cause the same harm as sleep deprivation,” explains Prof. Giora Pillar, head of the sleep clinic in Clalit Health Services’ Haifa District and sleep researcher at the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine. “There have been studies on this. In one, students were allowed to sleep for eight hours, but their sleep was interrupted. The damage was found to be the same.” 

A vicious cycle

The immediate effects are not limited to fatigue and exhaustion. Along with sleep deprivation, unending stress is not only mental but also physiological, affecting many bodily systems. When a person remains alert for an extended period, high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are secreted. Chronic exposure to these hormones can harm the immune system, increase inflammation and blood pressure and impair cardiovascular function. In addition, stress has been linked to sleep disorders (creating a vicious cycle) and to the worsening of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes, as well as to an increased risk of heart disease. Over time, this condition may erode physiological systems and cause an overall deterioration in health. 

Over the past two and a half years, with one operation following another and one air-raid siren after another, stress has become a familiar term. In general, it refers to a physical and emotional reaction to threatening or dangerous situations – not just wartime or physical danger, but also everyday pressures such as work overload, mental overload or difficulties in other aspects of life. In today’s reality, however, it’s almost impossible to isolate stress from sleep deprivation. “Stress is a mediating factor,” says Prof. Pillar. “It causes sleeplessness in itself, as well as many other complications.” 

In many respects, the symptoms of stress and sleep deprivation overlap or reinforce one another. In part, this connection is evident in eating patterns. Like stress, sleep deprivation is a risk factor. When sleep is reduced, levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) soar, while levels of leptin (the satiety hormone) fall. The result is increased hunger, especially for high-calorie, sugary and fatty foods. A 2004 study released by researchers from the University of Chicago demonstrated this clearly. The researchers hypothesised, based on their findings, that the body interprets sleep deprivation as a state of energy deficit – even if that’s not exactly the case.

Chronic overeating under such conditions can lead to weight gain, increased insulin resistance and a higher risk for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic disorders. In addition, ongoing caloric excess, driven by fatigue, also hinders the body’s ability to regulate metabolism and balance energy. 

And the list of risks does not end there. According to Pillar, sleep deprivation also affects the immune system. “Sleepless patients or patients who sleep poorly, that is to say: people who suffer from chronic sleep disorders, are already suffering from irreversible complications,” he warns. “We will see higher rates of high blood pressure, more cases of metabolic syndromes, more diabetes, more obesity, more strokes and more cancer.” 

To a certain extent, these symptoms are reversible, as reality has proven. “Soldiers who sleep too little and then sleep through the weekend are not at risk in the long term,” Pillar illustrates. “Medical interns who sometimes work two 26-hour shifts a week make up for lost sleep and don’t develop long-term complications. That is to say, it’s reversible – up to a point.” 

However, given the current reality, which has already lasted more than a week and even a fortnight, the question becomes where the line lies beyond which the damage becomes irreversible, or only partly reversible. This is a crucial question. “We are already seeing patients whose diabetes is no longer balanced,” he says, “or who have high blood pressure.” 

A 2016 study published in the International Journal of Cardiology found a clear link between sleep duration and coronary heart disease. The findings indicate that people who sleep seven to eight hours per night are at low risk, with every one-hour reduction associated with an 11 percent increase in the risk of heart disease. These findings were reaffirmed last November in another study, published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, which indicated that people who sleep six hours or less are at almost twice the risk of dying from kidney or heart disease compared with those who sleep longer. 

An immune system out of balance

Over the past two decades, many studies have examined the link between sleep quality and immune system function. Among other findings, people who sleep less than six hours a night produce fewer antibodies after vaccination; on the morning after a sleepless night, a significant increase is seen in the production of inflammatory cytokines – proteins secreted by immune cells in response to infection or injury; and, in general, proper sleep strengthens anti-inflammatory and anti-viral reactions, while inflammatory signals from the immune system affect the structure and depth of sleep.

According to a 2019 study published in Nature Reviews Immunology, sleep deprivation increases activity in the sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the body’s response in situations of threat and danger), which in turn raises stress hormone levels and releases inflammatory cytokines. It was found that in chronic sleep disorders, the overall level of inflammation in the body increases, while antiviral responses grow weaker. 

“Sleep deprivation is documented as one of the main biological factors affecting the immune system (when not diseased),” says Prof. Cyrille Cohen, head of the laboratory of immunology and immunotherapy and dean of Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Life Sciences. “In principle, conditions such as stress and sleep deprivation do not weaken every component in the immune system but rather cause an imbalance in its function.” He says this may manifest in several ways. “For instance, you’re at a slightly higher risk of certain infections, mainly respiratory – and the recovery process may also be slower.” However, Cohen emphasizes that “the effect is usually mild, and varies greatly from person to person.”

In 2011, Cornell entered into an academic partnership with the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology to compete for an ambitious goal: build an innovative New York City campus to educate a new generation of tech leaders, conduct breakthrough research and development, inspire startups and propel the city to becoming a global hub for the tech industry. Beating national competitors in the bidding process, Cornell and the Technion won the opportunity to create Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island. Without the Technion, there would be no Cornell Tech.

Nearly 15 years later, Cornell Tech has educated more than 2,700 students and undertaken groundbreaking research on AI and other new technologies.

Critical to this mission is the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, created through the unique academic partnership between Cornell and the Technion without a financial obligation from either university to the other. The Jacobs Institute brings together engineers, computer scientists, designers, clinicians and entrepreneurs to develop new technologies, launch startups and generate real-world impact through three research hubs focused on health, media and urban challenges. As is the case at most American universities, all of this research is supported through private philanthropy and competitive grants from U.S. government agencies. At the Health Tech Hub, faculty and students are building machine-learning systems that predict disease progression and assist clinicians with diagnosis and treatment, particularly in areas like cardiology, radiology and emergency care. In the Connective Media Hub, researchers study how digital platforms shape the way information spreads, communities form and public conversations evolve. Within the Urban Tech Hub, researchers explore how advanced data science can improve infrastructure — from housing and transportation to energy systems and climate resilience. Through programs like the Urban Innovation Fellows initiative, researchers work directly with agencies across New York City on challenges ranging from sanitation and procurement to transportation and housing policy.

Belgian-born Technion scientist Dr. Katrien Vandoorne leads research tracking inflammation in the body and says Israel’s collaborative science culture and wartime resilience convinced her to build her lab and raise her family here

When Dr. Katrien Vandoorne first arrived in Israel to pursue her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, she was struck by something that went far beyond laboratories and research facilities. “The people were very collaborative and warm and inspiring,” she recalled. “The science was really great for me, but also the Mediterranean climate, the food, all those things.”

Originally from Belgium, Vandoorne said the country’s scientific culture felt very different from the academic environment she had known in Europe. “In Belgium it’s very hierarchical,” she said. “The professor is very high up, and you should always be very polite and never question anything that is written in the book.”

How did you find Israel’s scientific culture in contrast?
“What I really like about Israel is that, as a master’s student, you can question the whole theory of your professor, and there is no problem with that,” she said. “Your professor will actually like it that the student is engaged and wants to make your theory fall.”

For Vandoorne, that openness was transformative. “No one will ever say, ‘That’s a stupid question,’” she said. “Everybody will say, ‘Hey, that’s a good question,’ and take it as a sport.” She believes this atmosphere encourages creativity and innovation. “The young people, they’re the ones with the, maybe, crazy ideas, but maybe also really solving things that the previous generations couldn’t solve.”

Building a life in Israel

Although Vandoorne later had opportunities to work in Europe and the United States, she and her family ultimately decided to build their future in Israel. “It was really a package deal,” she said. Her husband, an Israeli, had long hoped to return. But Vandoorne said the decision was not only personal. “For me it was really the scientific culture and the unique combination of very good science that wants to make an impact and solve problems, together with a really human environment,” she said.

Dr. Katrien Vandoorne
Dr. Vandoorne having breakfast with her students on the grass next to the faculty building: coffee, ideas, and a little team-buildin (Photo: Private album)

Family considerations also played a central role. The couple moved to Israel in the summer of 2018 with their three young children. “They were 3, 5 and 7,” she said. Starting over in a new country while raising a family was not simple. “Becoming an immigrant means that you have to learn the language, find new friends and also professionally grow,” she said. “It’s been a journey.”

Despite the challenges, she says the experience has been enriching. “Instead of making myself smaller by being only an immigrant, I expanded myself by learning Hebrew and also being part of the Israeli culture,” she said.

Mapping inflammation in the body

Today Vandoorne is head of theIn Vivo Multi-Scale Imaging Lab at the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering in Haifa. Before joining the Technion, she worked at leading research institutions in Europe and the United States, including Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, and conducted research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she completed her PhD.

Her team studies how inflammation spreads through the body and how immune cells travel between organs. “When the body faces any stress like infection, chronic disease or heart attack, the immune system is activated,” she explained. “Most of these immune cells come from the bone marrow. It’s like a factory inside the bones where blood and immune cells are produced.” Her work focuses on how inflammation contributes to diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and neurological disorders, conditions in which the immune system plays a key role.

Dr. Katrien Vandoorne

Using advanced imaging technologies including MRI, PET-CT and intravital microscopy, her team tracks immune cells as they move from the bone marrow through the bloodstream to organs such as the heart and brain. “Our goal is really to visualize these inflammatory processes so we can measure them, monitor them and ultimately also treat them,” she said. “Or even diagnose them earlier and be more precise with therapies.”

Vandoorne’s work sits at the intersection of biology, medicine and engineering, reflecting the Technion’s approach of combining technological innovation with medical research.

A unique research ecosystem

Vandoorne says the Technion’s strength lies in its ability to bridge engineering and medicine. “It combines engineers on the technical side and clinicians on the medicine side,” she said. “You have Rambam Hospital, a great medical school and all the engineers needed to solve problems.” Biomedical engineers often stand at the intersection of those disciplines. “We’re really trying to work on real-world problems,” she said.

Dr. Katrien Vandoorne

Beyond infrastructure, she credits the university’s collaborative atmosphere. “It’s a very warm human environment,” she said. “Everybody is open and supporting. Whatever question I have, people are trying to help.”

Life and work during war

Like many Israelis, Vandoorne’s daily life has also been shaped by the ongoing war. “The war has been a rough pill to swallow,” she said. Without extended family nearby and with many international friends leaving Israel after the October 7 attacks, the experience has been emotionally challenging. “I built up a whole network of friends and most of them left,” she said. “It was very confronting for me to need to start it up again.”

Yet she says both her children and her students have helped her navigate the uncertainty. “My children teach me the most about how to deal with it,” she said. “I worry about them and they tell me not to. They say they are fine.” Her lab community has also provided support. “For me our faculty feels like a small family,” she said. “Everybody is really part of the community.”

Dr. Katrien Vandoorne

During periods of heavy rocket fire from Hezbollah in northern Israel, staff and students often gathered in a large underground shelter inside their building. “We were just all down there trying to ground ourselves by talking science in the shelter while bombs were falling,” she said. “After everything stops everybody gives a hug and we go back up and continue our day.”

Believing in Israel’s scientific future

Despite the difficulties, Vandoorne remains optimistic about Israel’s future in science and innovation. “I think if anywhere there’s going to be biomedical innovation, it’s going to be here,” she said. Part of that belief comes from what she sees as a national resilience. “We are not afraid of anything,” she said. “That lack of fear stops many people in other countries from innovating.”

Dr. Katrien Vandoorne

Facing constant challenges can also fuel creativity, she said. “If you are in a country where everything is good and everything is fine, you don’t want to take a challenge,” she said. “Here we deal with challenges every day.”

For Vandoorne, that spirit continues to shape both her research and her life in Israel. “It really feels like a place where people want to solve problems and help each other,” she said. “That’s why I want to stay.”

Prof. Katrien Vandoorne is head of the In Vivo Multiscale Imaging Lab in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering in the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

As the world is told about the war between Iran, Israel and the United States in the language of strategy and security, my prism is memory. For many, this is geopolitics. For me, it never really is.

All my grandparents were Persian Jews. They left their homes when the country they had known most of their lives had become home no longer. They felt unsafe under a regime that was fast becoming more rigid and fundamentalist.

They left behind property, wealth, community and family. Some relatives who stayed were imprisoned. Many others were killed. In our family, those stories are not told as political history, they are told as personal experience.

Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran back then was a rapidly modernising country, vibrant and sophisticated with an incredibly rich culture. Under the rule of the Shah, it blended ancient heritage with a booming, Western-influenced urban culture – and the Jews were protected.

For centuries, Jews in Persia contributed to its society in many meaningful ways. My own family, from Mashhad, were educated, entrepreneurial and deeply connected to the people around them. The shift did not happen overnight. It rarely does, but as Islamic fundamentalism hardened into state power, Jewish life became increasingly precarious. What once felt like belonging, became uncertainty, and then fear. That change shaped the course of my family’s life, and it still echoes.

They were lucky and managed to leave the country before the current evil regime took power. They move to Israel, the US and the UK.

I was meant to be in Israel this week on a Technion UK solidarity visit. Cancelling the trip was not an easy decision. It felt heavy, and even disloyal. Yet whether I am in Israel or in London, what is unfolding does not feel far away. It feels familiar in ways that are too difficult to explain to those who do not carry a similar history.

As CEO of Technion UK, I proudly represent Israel’s oldest university and one of its leading scientific and technological institutions. Technion graduates have played a central and leading role in many areas including developing nearly all of Israel’s defence systems that protect Israel’s citizens of every background; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and Bedouin. But beyond the technology is something more enduring: a determination to keep building and contributing to the country and the world, even under threat.

When I spend time with members of the Persian Jewish community in London, I do not hear rage. I hear deep sadness. There is grief for a country they once loved that no longer exists. Their hope for change is not driven by vengeance. It is shaped by longing and the memory of what once was.

Behind the headlines are so many families like mine: 150,000 Jews shaped by exile, resilience and memory. That is not ancient history. It sits within living memory, around Shabbat tables, in the stories grandparents tell our children.

Purim teaches us that Jewish history has never moved in a straight line. There have been moments of threat, moments of reversal and moments of renewal. Remembering that is simply part of our inheritance.

For me, this moment is not only about strategy or security. It is about responsibility, to those who came before us, and to those who will come after. That is why it feels so personal.

The Technion claimed the top spot in Europe for AI research according to CSRankings, placing 21st globally, and has fuelled a surge of successful commercial tech spinoffs.

The Technion Israel Institute of Technology was ranked the best university in computer science and artificial intelligence research in Israel and Europe. It was also ranked 21st worldwide, according to an index unveiled by CSRankings on Monday.

The index was created using the number of peer-reviewed conference papers published by Technion researchers between 2005 and 2025 at the world’s leading computer science conferences, highlighting the Technion as one of the leading institutions in AI research and development.

The institute was also ranked among the top ten most important universities when investigating Machine Learning, a subfield of Artificial Intelligence.

The Technion explained that this achievement was possible thanks to its extensive community of researchers, comprising more than 150 professionals from across a range of faculties, working in various areas of AI research and development.

“This international recognition stems from a long-term strategy to advance AI research at the Technion and from substantial investment in this field,” said Prof. Danny Raz, Senior Executive Vice President at the Technion.

Aerial view of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (credit: TECHNION SPOKESPERSON’S OFFICE)

“Hundreds of our faculty members apply advanced AI-based methods across a wide range of fields, including data science, medical research, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, architecture, and biology, and I am confident this trend will only intensify,” he added.

Technion transforms academic achievements into commercial applications

According to a statement by the institute, the Technion’s AI research achievements have been translated into commercial applications, mainly using the T3, the Technion’s technology transfer arm.

Among the most important are Firefly Neuroscience (brain health), founded by Dr. Shahaf Goded and which went public in 2024; DECI AI (deep learning), founded by Prof. Ran El-Yaniv and acquired by NVIDIA; and Autobrains (autonomous vehicles), founded by Prof. Yehoshua Zeevi.

Other important companies founded by Technion’s alums are Barcode Nanotech (in-body particle transport for therapeutic purposes), founded by Prof. Avi Schroeder, Pickommerce AI Robotics (robotics), founded by Prof. Elon Rimon, Nol8 (data processing), founded this year by Prof. Mark Silberstein, Metasight Diagnostics (bioinformatics), founded by Prof. Tomer Shlomi, and SleepAI (sleep research), founded by Prof. Joachim Behar.

Ali Ayoub told the Globes Putting the North at the Center Conference that Nvidia does not see the north as a periphery but as the center of the AI revolution.

“I was born and raised in the (Galilee) village of Majd al-Krum and was infatuated by the field of technology from an early age. I remember my father buying us a computer, which was not a given. I shared the computer with my brothers,” Nvidia VP software engineering Ali Ayoub told Globes technology editor Assaf Gilead at the Globes Putting the North at the Center Conference held in cooperation with Bank Leumi and Strauss Group.

Nvidia VP Ali Ayoub credit: Cadya Levy

Ayoub spoke about AI and if it will replace engineers and juniors, how to hire employees in the North, how to integrate Arab society into tech professions, Nvidia’s cooperation with academia, and how he reached his current position at Nvidia. Ayoub’s path to Nvidia VP included several stages: he earned a degree in computer engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, worked at Mellanox, moved to the US where he worked at Google and founded a startup, and after 10 years he returned to Israel and Mellanox, and remained there even after the acquisition of Nvidia. At the US chip giant, he founded the DOCA feature group and today manages hundreds of employees at Nvidia in Israel and around the world. He is also cofounder of the HAAT food delivery company.

When asked why he chose to return to Israel, he replied: “People usually ask why I left the center of the country and came to the north. I left the center of the world, Silicon Valley, and returned to the north. This is home. In high-tech, they always talk about the importance of work-life balance, the north is ‘life’, and also being close to family and Nvidia is ‘work’. For me, the stars aligned and looking back, this is one of the best decisions I made.”

Nvidia is to build a large development center in Kiryat Tivon over the next decade for 8,000-10,000 employees. Why in the north and specifically in Kiryat Tivon?

“The north has excellent human capital, and tech companies are really looking for the best. In the north, first of all, there are very good universities. Also in general, if you want to find good people, it is worth looking where others are less likely to look. In Nvidia’s eyes, the north is a place with excellent human capital and a place for growth, and it is no coincidence that they chose Tivon. From our point of view, there is raw material here and it is full of talent that we would be very happy to recruit to Nvidia to reach even further and greater growth. In my opinion, not only is there talent here, but also untapped talent here.”

Can you expand about Nvidia’s activities in Israel?

“Nvidia Israel, which employs 5,000, is the company’s biggest branch worldwide outside the US. The employees are the nervous system of data centers. They focus on the field of networking and the transformation of AI. Nvidia makes the GPU (graphics processing unit), the AI engine, and if hundreds of GPUs were once enough to build AI data centers, today thousands are needed. They must be connected to a very fast network, and this is where Nvidia Israel comes in. We provide these fast networks. This is the beating heart of the AI revolution not only in Israel, but around the world.”

How do you hire employees in the North?

“Firstly, you have to believe that they exist, look for them and then find them. It’s a matter of cause and effect. In all kinds of jobs, not just in high-tech, there is a lot of stress on the balance between work and home. The North brings the home part and we have to work on the work part. So, companies must set up branches here and focus on here and create the opportunity to work in quality jobs. This is, in my opinion, the number one element that will keep people here. Nvidia does not see the North as a periphery but sees it as the center of the AI revolution, and you have to believe in it and see it and when you look, you find it.”

Are you working with universities in order to build a pool of employees in the future?

“For us, universities are not just a collaboration, but complement us. This is not done as a favor to the universities, but we want to bring the best to us. Personally, every two months, there is a high school or school that comes to visit. It starts even before the universities.”

Ayoub spoke about collaboration with the universities: “We work very closely with them. This is reflected in job fairs, and we have a program that provides AI tools to lecturers and students, and this brings us very close together.”

On the change required in universities and the integration of AI tools, he said, “I think universities are changing. They also turn to us and we suggest how to change the syllabus and courses. The juniors and students we hire do an excellent job and integrate into AI very quickly. We take people when they have the basic tools, and we do the education and use of AI tools within the company.”

On the difficulty of juniors finding tech jobs, he said, “We hire a lot of juniors and we are at the center of the AI revolution that will require more work. We need to hire people. The reason we are doing this is because we believe in juniors and do not believe that AI will replace them.”

“Whoever doesn’t use AI will get left behind”

You are Nvidia VP software engineering, and this is the area most vulnerable to the impact of AI. There are companies where employees and programmers have not programmed for six months. Do you believe that the programmer will be replaced by AI?

“Not at all. AI will not replace the engineer, but any engineer who does not use AI will be replaced by another engineer who does use it. Almost every engineer at Nvidia uses AI. Things that take weeks to do alone, today can be done in days or hours. It is such an essential tool that anyone who does not use it will be left behind. AI will certainly create new jobs for those who look at it from the right angle.”

What would you recommend to your young children when they grow up to study: software or electrical engineering?

“You cannot do one without the other. I studied software and work in it, but the software I make is software that complements the hardware. The hardware is the body and the software is the mind. You cannot have a body without a mind and vice versa. They complement each other.”

You have previously told me that when you were growing up, your family took it very hard that you went to study computer engineering.

“My parents wanted me to be a doctor, maybe to this day,” laughs Ayoub. “I remember when I wanted to enroll in school, there was the option to give two majors. But I asserted myself, and I only registered the first major.”

How has Arab society changed in recent years and how easy is it for young people to integrate into the tech industry?

“We see them at the Technion, but many give up after their degree and go do other things. But still, almost 16% of the students today in technology subjects are from Arab society. At the Technion, close to 20% of students are Arab, which is very close to the percentage of the population. 50% of Arab students are female students, and this representation we are very proud of. Tech companies are looking for diversity and we see it as a blessing and something good that brings better products.”

Ayoub stresses that more work is needed because there are not many entrepreneurs from Arab society: “Today there is more openness and exposure to technology and we need more role models to say ‘When I grow up, I will be a tech professional’. I think it is happening, but we need to give it more push.”

Full disclosure: The conference was held in cooperation with Bank Leumi and Strauss Group, and sponsored by Aura Investments, Tel-Hai Academic College, Propdo, and with the participation of Netivei Israel National Transport Infrastructure Co.

Patent registration involves prestige as well as significant money. Commercial companies file patents and reap major profits, but academic institutions also benefit from the innovations developed by their researchers.

Israel holds a respected position in this arena, and for the fifth consecutive year, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ranked among the Top 100 institutions for U.S. patent approvals.

The latest ranking places the Technion first in Israel, second in Europe, and within the list of the world’s 100 leading institutions for U.S. patent approvals in 2025. The Technion ranked 81st globally, with 46 patents approved during the year, and was the only Israeli university to make the Top 100. The top spot went to the governing body of the University of California.

The Technion’s approved patents span a wide range of fields, from artificial intelligence to 3D-printed structures, from smart drug delivery systems to advanced materials and quantum computing technologies.

Prof. Yuval Grofeni, Deputy President for Innovation and Industry Relations, said: “The Technion’s continued success at the forefront of patent approvals is a credit to our faculty members and their students, who constantly strive for excellence. Many invest not only in high-level research but also in translating their work into technologies and products that positively impact quality of life.”

The patent rankings are published by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The organization notes that U.S. patent registration enables academic and other institutions to convert original technologies into competitive products in the global market and make a tangible impact on consumers. The NAI ranking is based on data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for 2025 and includes 100 institutions and approximately 10,000 patents.

Rona Samler, CEO of T3, the Technion’s technology transfer unit responsible for patent evaluation and licensing, added: “Behind every patent stands deep scientific thinking, and behind every licensing decision — responsibility for generating real-world value. T3 is tasked not only with managing patents but also with transforming knowledge into innovation through commercialization and company formation, thereby serving society, strengthening the economy, and contributing to the resilience and prosperity of Israel and the world.”