Ever thought “what makes the world tick”? Why glass and sand, that contain the same basic material, are so different? Why does one reaction with oxygen take forever while another explodes in the blink of an eye? How a living cell can perform thousands of reactions all at once without becoming confused – and yet one mistaken reaction can cause its death? If these types of questions interest you, your place is with us in the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
The Faculty of Chemistry is home to students and researchers whose goals are to explain why the physical world around us behaves as it does, on the molecular level. In this process our students and researchers can also design and synthesize new molecules, with new characteristics, that the world has never seen. And these molecules can be used for the benefit and improvement in the lives of all mankind.
The Technion is the premier technological university in Israel – in fact, it is one of the top institutions of scientific and engineering learning and research in the world. Chemistry lies at the very center of research and study in the Technion, and the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry leads the way in both of these endeavors. Scientists and engineers in the Technion are moving more and more into the realm of the smallest devices possible – molecular devices. And for this reason the Faculty of Chemistry is central for all of the research and studies at the Technion.
The Schulich Faculty of Chemistry has 27 faculty members involved in research and teaching. There are more than 200 undergraduate students, about 100 graduate students and 40 post-doctoral fellows. The research interests of the faculty members are broad and include Physical, Analytical, Inorganic, Organic, Bio- and Theoretical Chemistries. In addition, research is performed in alternative energy technologies, nanosciences, drug design and structural biology. The Faculty maintains strong ties with the other scientific, engineering and medical faculties of the Technion. Our faculty members are also highly involved in the Technion’s interdepartmental research centers: the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), the Lorry Lokey Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, the Grand Water Research Institute (GWRI), and the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP). One can find the research achievements of our faculty and their graduate students published in premier scientific journals such as Nature, Nature Chem., Science, PNAS, JACS, Angew. Chem. Nano Lett. and elsewhere.
Our undergraduate and graduate curriculum are based on the dynamic nature of modern chemical knowledge. Within a short time, students move from the most introductory level of chemistry to advanced courses that provide insight into the fields of modern research. Along with our 3-year program in Chemistry, we offer two joint undergraduate programs: the 3-year Molecular Biochemistry track (in conjunction with the Faculty of Biology) and a double major (4 years) in Chemistry and Materials Engineering. During the academic year, hundreds of additional students from the Technion study service and advanced chemistry courses in the Faculty. In addition, we provide the most modern experimental teaching facilities in Israel, with extensive labs in General, Analytical, Organic and Physical chemistries. Thousands of Technion students have been able to learn first-hand what being a chemist truly is through these lab courses.
The Schulich Faculty of Chemistry has a strong commitment to the promotion of chemical education at the junior and high school levels. The Faculty, along with the Israel Ministry of Education hold the yearly Israeli Chemistry Olympiad (the Chimiada).The winners of the last internal stage form the Israeli team that participates in the International Chemistry Olympiad, that takes place each year in a different country. A second project is “Archimedes”. This program brings in talented high school students from around Israel to study at the Technion for up to three years, completing Technion-level courses which are awarded credits towards a future Technion degree.
Cutting-edge science requires sophisticated equipment. The Faculty provides our researchers with state-of-the-art infrastructure operated by excellent staff in our departmental centers; NMR, X-ray crystallography, Mass Spectrometry, Computational Chemistry and the Chemical and Surface Characterization Lab. This is augmented by the availability of the Technon interdepartmental centers. These tools are vital for our researchers as well as an educational tool used by undergraduate and graduate students.
Many of the varied activities described above that happen every day at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry are made possible by the generous and long-standing support of Mr. Seymour Schulich. Mr. Schulich is a very prominent philanthropist, who supports university education programs in Israel, Canada and the United States.
For more information on any subject, please contact us here.
