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Science and Technology in Israel
Education and Technology
Israel boasts seven top-level academic institutions, established by the yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, even before Israeli independence. The Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, was established in 1924; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925; and the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1946, originally the Sieff Institute founded in 1934.
Israel ranks as having one of the world’s highest percentages of citizens engaged in scientific and technological research and development in relation to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Today, approximately 100,000 students are enrolled in Israel's universities, with about 21 percent of all undergraduate students and 50 percent of all Ph.D. candidates specializing in the sciences or medicine. Another 13 percent of all undergraduate students and 8 percent of all graduate students specialize in engineering and architecture. Out of every 1,000 Israeli employees, 135 are engineers, almost double the percentage of engineers in the United States.
Research and Development in Industry
Israel has a chief scientist in the Ministries of Agriculture, Communications, Defense, National Infrastructure, Health and Industry to promote and encourage science-based high-tech industries. Each chief scientist acts as an advisor to the minister on matters of industrial research and development, promotes cooperation with foreign countries, and provides financial aid to worthy research and development projects.
The Law for the Encouragement of Industrial Research and Development is aimed at developing science-based export-oriented industries, capable of creating employment and improving the country's balance of payments. The chief scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for implementing this law, and provides R&D grants to industries seeking to export their products. If a project fails, the government's money is lost; if it succeeds, the entrepreneur pays back three percent of the grant yearly until the sum is repaid.
Israel has also signed bilateral R&D cooperation agreements with the United States, Canada, members of the European Union, India and Singapore. The aim of the agreements is to encourage contacts between Israel and overseas companies to facilitate joint ventures in R&D, manufacturing and marketing. The establishment of joint ventures with foreign industrial firms has often utilized the strength of the Israeli firm in innovation and those of the foreign firm in large-scale production and market penetration. Joint ventures have been undertaken in areas such as electronics, software, medical equipment, printing and computerized graphics, with many actively assisted by these bi-national frameworks.
Technological incubators were introduced in 1991 to encourage the development of innovative ideas by individual entrepreneurs, whose companies were too small or whose ideas were too risky to fit into the Ministry of Industry & Trade's regular research and development program. The establishment of the incubators coincided with mass immigration from the Former Soviet Union, which brought an estimated 65,000 engineers to Israel, many of them experts in their field but lacking capital and experience with a free enterprise economy. Incubators assist entrepreneurs to complete their projects and turn them into commercially viable ventures. They provide assistance in recruiting R&D staff, perform marketing and feasibility studies, and provide physical facilities, professional and managerial guidance and assistance in recruiting investment capital.
Medicine
Sophisticated medical equipment for both diagnostic and treatment purposes has been developed and marketed worldwide, such as computer tomography (CT) scanners, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, ultrasound scanners, nuclear medical cameras and surgical lasers. Other innovations include a controlled-release liquid polymer to prevent accumulation of tooth plaque; a device to reduce both benign and malignant swellings of the prostate gland; the use of botulin to correct eye squint; and a miniature camera encased in a swallowable capsule used to diagnose gastrointestinal disease.
Energy
Extensive development of alternative energy sources such as solar, thermal and wind energy has been a response to the country's lack of conventional energy sources. As a result, Israel is a leader in the solar energy field at every level and the world's largest per capita user of residential solar water heaters. Recently a new, high-efficiency receiver to collect concentrated sunlight has been developed that will enhance the use of solar energy in industry as well.
An advance in harnessing wind energy has been the production of a wind turbine with a flexible, inflatable rotor. Technology utilizing pond water with a certain degree of salinity and mineral composition to absorb and store solar energy has been developed. Geothermal power stations, capable of extracting heat from the ground and converting it to steam for powering turbines, are now being tested. A newly approved project, developed by a team of scientists at the Technion, uses dry air and water (even sea or brackish water) to produce energy through 1,000-meter high chimneys.
Optics
Optics, electro-optics and lasers have been growing rapidly as industrial fields. Israel is a world leader in fiber-optics, electro-optic inspection systems for printed circuit boards, thermal imaging night-vision systems and electro-optics-based robotic manufacturing systems.
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Sources: The International Optical Engineering Community
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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