Israel's leading university in engineering and technology. Located in Haifa, the Technion is Israel's oldest institution of higher learning. Construction was begun in 1912, but various factors delayed its formal opening. The first classes were held in 1924. The school grew slowly until the independence of Israel, when the significance of science and technology for the development and the security of the new state became apparent. The Technion was envisaged as the institution to provide Israel with the engineers, architects, and research scientists essential for the country's technical advance. It has since become an internationally recognized institution in various areas of specialty.
The Technion has been a major contributor to the development and advancement of Israel since its founding. The Technion was a center for the Jewish underground and a source of defense technology integral in the struggle for a state. During the 1960s, the Technion brought in hundreds of students from the developing world to Israel to study, and the Technion faculty and staff delivered technological aid to countries throughout the world.
The Technion graduates constitute the majority of Israeli educated scientists and engineers and are responsible for Israel having the largest concentration of high-tech startup companies outside of Silicon Valley. It is a world-class science and engineering institution with an accomplished faculty and student body. In 2004, Technion professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work in understanding the process of protein breakdown in cells. The Technion has a current student body of approximately 13,000.
See also Education.
Historical Dictionary of Israel. Bernard Reich David H. Goldberg. Edited by Jon Woronoff..