Photos highlight ‘the start-up of the start-up nation’

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of Israel’s major institutions of higher education, is also a hotbed of technological development. This week, the university opened a new photo exhibition that shows off some of those developments along with the researchers responsible for them.

The exhibition, called “Innovators Way,” features photos of 27 professors and researchers posing with their inventions in an illustrative display of their work.

Prof. David Avnir of Hebrew University's Institute of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science developed Sol-Gel Technology, used in the fields of optics, catalysis, sensing, polymers, biochemistry and pharmacy. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Thus, a photo of Professor Haim D. Rabinovich, who, along with Professor Nachum Kedar basically invented the cherry tomato, shows him picking a tomato off a plant. A photo of Professor Amnon Shashua, inventor of Mobileye, which alerts drivers about dangerous situations before they occur, shows him behind the wheel of a test car. And Professor Alexander Vainstein, who invented the MemoGene technology that allows the creation of new traits in plants through genetic modification, is seen injecting a needle into a flower.

The photos were taken by Nati Shohat, founder of Flash90, a well-known Israeli photo agency that supplies images to newspapers, magazines and other customers in Israel and abroad.

Prof. Amnon Shashua of Hebrew University's Selim and Rachel Benin School of Engineering and Computer Science at the Faculty of Science, invented Mobileye, a system designed to prevent accidents by warning the driver in real time about dangerous situations and driving conditions. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Interestingly, university officials limited the exhibit to just 27 of the most important innovations developed at the school. Over the years, Hebrew University researchers have filed thousands of patents for all sorts of products and processes. In 2011 alone, staff filed 51 international patents, putting Hebrew University among the top 500 patent-filing institutions (corporate and academic) in the world.

In a statement, Hebrew University president Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson said that “so far the university has registered approximately 7,000 patents protecting roughly 2,000 developments and inventions, and founded 72 companies based on some of those inventions. If Israel is the start-up nation,” Ben-Sasson added, “then the Hebrew University is the start-up of the start-up nation.”

Prof. Nissim Garti of Hebrew University's Institute of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science developed NSSL (Nano Sized Self-assembled Liquid vehicles) technology, a platform based on nano-droplets that are created spontaneously, and are thermodynamically stable, clear as water, and soluble in any proportion to water. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)