The School of Medicine was founded in Haifa by a group of doctors who understood the importance of a school for medical education and research in the north of the country. The first cohort consisted of 43 students who completed their pre-clinical studies abroad and were then accepted to a four-year program in which two years of pre-clinical studies and two additional years of clinical training in hospitals in Israel were required for the degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD). In 1971, the Technion’s senate approved the merging the medical school into the Technion’s academic structure as a Faculty and to this day it is one of the few medical schools in the world operating in a technological institute. The Faculty also includes a program for research students and is very proud of its two faculty members who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Research Prof. Avram Hershko and Research Prof. Aaron Ciechanover.