The Technion Timeline

Scroll through to see Technion's 100 years of achievements

1935
German Professors and scientists immigrated

Technion brought aboard professors and scientists who immigrated from Germany. They founded the Technological Department from which arose the faculties of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, High Commissioner in Palestine, visits the Technion

Arthur Wauchope was born into a British noble family in 1874. He attended Brampton School and in 1893 joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He fought in the Second Boer War and was seriously wounded in 1899 at Magersfontein. From 1903 to 1914, he served in British India. At the…Read More

1938
Establishment of a Nautical School

In 1936, Dr. Shlomo Brardin, the director of Bosmat, presented the need for establishing a maritime school as part of the settlement’s awakening to the conquest of the sea and Hebrew labor. On October 18, 1938, according to Dr. Brardin’s vision, a new school was established within the premises of…Read More

1939
The Second World War

A few days after the outbreak of war, David Ben-Gurion declared that “We must help the (British) army as if there was no White Book, and we must fight in the White Book as if there were no war.” Indeed, little by little the number of recruits from the Yishuv…Read More

1940
Establishment of the American Technion Society

Albert Einstein fled to the USA from the Nazi regime in 1933. He continued to support the Technion and on May 8, 1940, the American Technion Society was officially founded. Technion Societies in Israel and around the world raise funds to support the research activities that take place at the…Read More

1941
1943
Establishment of the Solel Boneh Royal Engineers Company WW2

“During World War II, as part of the settlement’s war effort, the Solel Boneh Company RE 745 was established. It included many students and graduates of the Technion, and its commander was Dov Givon, a graduate of the Technion, sixth cohort, 1932/3. In September-October 1942, a course was held for…Read More

1945
The Technion supports the British Army

With the approach of fighting in North Africa and towards Egypt, the fear of a German occupation of the Land of Israel rose in the settlement. Due to this concern it was decided that the British Army should be given all possible assistance. The Technion made its workshops available to…Read More

1946
Members of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine visit

On March 18, 1946, two members of the Anglo-American Committee visited the Technion. The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into the Affairs of the Land of Israel was a committee tasked with proposing a solution to the question of the Land of Israel and the problem of displaced Jews in Europe.…Read More

Abigail Weinbrand, a secretary at the Technion, was killed in a demonstration against the British mandate.

Abigail Weinbrand participated in a demonstration in Haifa against the British immigration policy, which prevented Holocaust survivors and refugees from immigrating to the Land of Israel. Abigail was the Technion’s first casualty in the struggle for immigration to the Land of Israel and was 19 years old when she died.…Read More

1947
Henry Wallace, former vice president of the USA, visits the Technion

Henry Wallace, Vice President of the United States in the years 1941-1945 and a world-renowned researcher in the field of agronomy, came on a tour of Israel for the purpose of research on the impact of agriculture on world peace. Wallace was the US Secretary of Agriculture for seven years,…Read More

1948
First Independence Day

The first Independence Day was celebrated at the Technion on May 20, 1948, about a week after Ben Gurion’s announcement, at a joint meeting of the executive committee, professors, and teachers. Shlomo Kaplansky, the director of the Technion, gave a speech in which he referred to the magnitude of the…Read More

1949
Laying of the cornerstone for the Electrical Laboratories building

Today, Sunday, the twenty-third day of the month of Iyar, in the year 5709 since the creation of the world, May 22, 1949 – in the second year of Israel’s independence under the presidency of Chaim Weizmann, in the tenth year since the outbreak of World War II, which brought…Read More

Graduation of the 20th cohort of Technion students

This is the first class to graduate after the establishment of the State of Israel and the War of Independence, and most of the graduates arrived while they were still in uniform. At the ceremony, four diplomas were awarded posthumously, to graduates who were killed.

1950
1951
Yaakov Dori, 7th president of the Technion 1951-1965

Yaakov Dori was the commander of the Haganah, the first Chief of Staff of the IDF, the president of the Technion and later the deputy mayor of Haifa. He was born in Odessa and immigrated with his family to the Land of Israel when he was six years old. Dori,…Read More

Technion’s logo unveiled

The Technion logo as it is known today, first appeared officially on an Israel postage stamp issued in 1956. The stamp was issued to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Technion opening its first class in 1924. The Technion logo was apparently chosen as part of a competition. On June…Read More

Establishment of the Faculty of Science including the Physics Department chaired by Prof. Nathan Rosen

In 1952, the Faculty of Science was established as part of the Technion’s expansion plan, and the Department of Physics was established as part of the faculty. The first head of the Department of Physics was Professor Nathan Rosen. A number of researchers such as David Bohm joined the department…Read More

The first doctoral dissertation at the Technion

The first doctoral dissertation at the Technion was submitted by Eliezer Mishkin, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Franz Ollendorff, in June 1951. The title of the thesis: “Direct Calculation of Induction Motors Based on Maxwell’s Field Equations.” Mishkin was awarded the degree of Doctor…Read More

1952
Rahel Shalon, first Technion graduate to reach rank of full professor

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…Read More

First Doctorate

In 1952, the Technion approved the first doctoral thesis submitted at the academic institution, by a graduate of the faculty.

Decision to expand the campus and selection of site for new buildings

The Faculty of Aeronautics was the first faculty established on the new Technion campus in Neve Sha’anan.

1953
The cornerstone of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering

On April 21, 1953, the cornerstone was laid for the Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering Building, which was also the cornerstone for the establishment of the Technion campus in Neve Sha’anan. The Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering was the first faculty established on the new Technion campus in Neve Sha’anan. The establishment…Read More

Establishment of the Department of Agricultural Engineering

As early as 1937, the Technion gave courses in agricultural engineering. The Technion’s agriculture program provided technical assistance to the agricultural settlements and kibbutzim. The Hydraulics Department researchers helped turn aquaculture – fishponds – into industry. In 1953, the department of agricultural engineering was established by Walter Clay Lowdermilk. Lowdermilk,…Read More

Establishment of the Neve Sha’anan campus planned by Alexander Klein

After the selection of the area in which the campus would be expanded, the design of the new Technion City was entrusted to Alexander Klein. Klein was not only a professor of architecture at the Technion and the founder and head of the city planning division in the Faculty of…Read More

Niels Bohr, awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics, visits the Technion

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Jewish Danish physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1922), and one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century. He contributed significantly to understanding the structure of the atom and was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics. Bohr was also…Read More

1954
Establishment of the faculty of chemistry / chemical engineering

In 1954 Prof. David Ginsburg was assigned the task of developing the Technion’s Department of Chemistry which included a number of researchers in the fields of analytical and physical chemistry. After a period of development and establishment, the Technion’s basic science departments – chemistry, physics and mathematics – received the…Read More

Dinner in honor of Winston Churchill

In November 1954, a gala dinner sponsored by the Technion was held at the Savoy Hotel in London in honor of Prime Minister of England Winston Churchill, with the participation of important figures in English Jewry.

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