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A historic Independence Day achievement for the six members of Israel’s student delegation, trained at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion

A historic accomplishment was achieved by the six members of Israel’s student delegation, all of whom won medals at the International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad held in Moscow. The 60th anniversary of the Mendeleev Olympiad was marked this year with a particularly impressive event, featuring 35 countries and 165 participants. The six students were trained at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion.

Members of the delegation:

• Itamar Ben Shmuel (Ramat Gan), a 12th-grade student at Hakfar Hayarok – Gold Medal (5th place in the world!)
• Daniel Granovsky (Holon), an 11th-grade student at Pinhas Ayalon High School – Silver Medal
• Yehonadav Marienberg (Mazkeret Batya), an 11th-grade student at Yeshivat Har Etzion for Young Men, Alon Shvut – Silver Medal
• Yogev Cohen Ben Zaken (Tzoran), a 12th-grade student at Hakfar Hayarok – Bronze Medal
• Yoav Pripaz Cohen (Ramat Gan), a 12th-grade student at Ohel Shem High School – Bronze Medal
• Noam Margulies (Petah Tikva), an 11th-grade student at Moshe Arens High School – Bronze Medal

The delegation was accompanied by Itamar Steinitz, head of the delegation, an Olympiad medalist and instructor in Israel’s Chemistry Olympiad team, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and linguistics; and Guy Zimmerman, an Olympiad medalist, an outstanding instructor in the national team, who holds a dual bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics, and is a master’s student in chemistry.

Prof. Zeev Gross, academic director of the program, who joined the delegation, said: “It is hard to imagine a more moving event at this time than a competition that began the day after Holocaust Remembrance Day and concluded at noon on Independence Day, with the announcement that all six members of the Israeli delegation had won medals and their ascent to the stage with the Israeli flag.”

The closing and medal ceremonies were attended by two representatives from the Israeli Embassy in Moscow: political advisor Shir Hasson and embassy spokesperson Alexandra Zakhary.

The students underwent intensive training during this challenging year under head coach Dr. Reut Shapira and the dedicated coaching team: Dr. Yuri Andreev, Dr. Slava Kutuzov, laboratory manager Dr. Idan Avigdori, educational advisor Shir Kagan, and past Olympiad medalists Asaf Moadah, Guy Zimmerman, Sean Hantz, Maxim Sevostyanov, Omer Ben Ami, Noya Dishon, and Yonatan Gontmacher.

The high school Olympiad project is a joint initiative of the Future Scientists Center (Maimonides Fund) and the Ministry of Education. The Technion was selected as the academic institution responsible for selecting and training the students who form the core of the delegation. Training takes place at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry in close collaboration with the faculty’s academic and administrative staff.

Rafael Benodis is 19 years old. He made aliyah on his own from France in November 2024, leaving his parents behind while joining his grandparents and extended family in Israel.

Growing up, Rafael witnessed the rise of antisemitism in France and across Europe. He realized he did not want his future children to grow up in that reality.

On October 7, his cousin, Natan Hai Liar z”l, fought like a lion in Kerem Shalom and fell heroically. At the same time, as pro-Palestinian demonstrations spread across France, Rafael understood he had no other choice; he had to come home.

At first, his parents were in shock. Rafael had left behind demanding engineering studies in France, and his father initially refused to support his decision. Over time, however, they came to understand that it was the right path for him.

Today, Rafael is part of an academic program and is pursuing a combined degree in electrical engineering and physics at the Technion.

Adjusting was not easy. One of his biggest challenges was reaching the level of students who had grown up in Israel. He often had to revisit lectures multiple times to fully grasp the material, gradually finding a study pace that allowed him to succeed.

Learning Hebrew from scratch was another major hurdle, but one he embraced. He studied at an ulpan at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and chose to live with Israeli roommates from different backgrounds, an experience that helped him quickly adapt to both the language and the culture.

Through his program and participation in the Anières Program — an honors program for outstanding students — Rafael has connected with peers from across Israel and around the world, gaining a deeper understanding of Israeli society in all its diversity. He was also struck by how Israelis take initiative from a young age, whether through travel, work, or volunteering.

This year marks Rafael’s second Independence Day, one of his favorite days. He plans to celebrate with flags and friends in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

One of his most meaningful moments came during last year’s celebrations there, when he realized that the Jewish people have no other place in the world but Israel.

Every morning, Rafael feels confident he made the right choice. He hopes that Jews living abroad will one day feel the same and choose to return home.

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.”

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.”