Rachel Shalon was a professor of civil engineering at the Technion and the first female engineer in the Land of Israel. Shalon was born as Rachel Znamirowska in Kalush, Poland, to a Hasidic family. She finished high school in Warsaw, after which she studied chemical engineering at the Polytechnic. In 1925 she came on a tourist visit to the Land of Israel, was fascinated by the place and decided to stay. She was accepted to the Technion, studied chemical engineering and became a faculty member. In 1952, as mentioned, she was the first woman was awarded the rank of professor at the Technion.
Rachel, who married Uriel Shalon, was not only a researcher and an academic who held senior positions – Vice President of the Technion for Research Affairs, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Dean of the Graduate School – but also was a public activist in the nascent state. With the establishment of the state, she was appointed chair of the expert committee for construction within the Scientific Council at the Prime Minister’s Office. At that time, she established the Building Research Station, with the aim of researching the construction industry in Israel.
In 1954 she founded the Israeli branch of the Soroptimist organization for working and professional women and in the international organization she was elected president of the European Federation. Later, together with her husband Uriel Shalon, she established a fund to finance the establishment of student dormitories in Haifa. The time is too short to enumerate all of Shalon’s work. In 1980, she was one of the torch-lighters at the Independence Day ceremony, in recognition of her lifetime accomplishments.