New Australian partnerships for The Technion
The Technion in Haifa has signed Memoranda of Understanding with Macquarie University in Sydney and the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth as part of its ongoing program to become a global university.
Professor Wayne Kaplan, Peter Hersh and Professor Robyn Owens at the UWA signing
“The Technion, Israel’s foremost high-tech, scientific and engineering university, is continuing to build collaboration with other leading universities throughout the world,” said Technion Australia president Dr Ruth Ratner.
“With its track record in innovation and particularly through its alumni, entrepreneurship, the Technion is a hotly sought after partner by the world’s leading universities. It receives two requests each day and as a relatively small university (13,000 students and 600 faculty) it has had to become selective in choosing partners.”
“In this context, for the Technion to sign agreements with two Australian universities within 6 months is a testimonial to the quality of research at these universities and a reflection of the high esteem that each holds for the other,” she said.
Asso. Prof Judirh Dawes, Dr Ruth Ratner, Prof. Sakkie Pretorius and Ken Lander at the Macquarie sig
Both agreements facilitate student exchange and academic exchange as well as research collaboration.
The UWA agreement was signed by UWA Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Professor Robyn Owens, and Technion Executive Vice President Research, Professor Wayne Kaplan, during the annual Technion Board of Governors’ Meeting. Australian Technion Governor, Peter Hersh, hosted a UWA delegation at the Governors meeting.
The Macquarie University agreement was exchanged at a small ceremony in Sydney by Technion Australia president and Australian Technion Governor, Dr Ratner, and Macquarie Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Professor Sakkie Pretorius.
Technion Australia is working with UWA and the Technion Automated Systems Program to develop a major research collaboration in the area of automated system for marine gas engineering. The project was selected after discussions with a number of potential partners, industry groups and the Western Australia Government.
“Our aim is to develop a project that will benefit both Australia and Israel. UWA has a world leading position in marine gas engineering and the Technion has a similar reputation in automated systems. The continuing challenges of gas fields in the North West Shelf off Western Australia and new discoveries of gas off the coast of Israel make this a national priority in both countries,” Dr Ratner said.
Macquarie University has leading researchers in fields as varied as biblical archaeology, quantum physics, environmental sciences and biomedical engineering. Similarly to the Technion it is breaking new ground in multi-disciplinary research.
“There are already a number of individual collaborations underway and there is much enthusiasm at Macquarie to partner with Technion researchers in a major project,” Dr Ratner added.
The Technion also has agreements with University of NSW, Sydney University, University of Technology Sydney, Newcastle University, Melbourne University, Monash University and Swinburne University.
