The President of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig, and the National President of the Canadian Technion Society, Mr. Arnold Ludwick, today announced a landmark US $20 million gift from Seymour Schulich to the Technion to train future scientists and scholars in the field of chemistry.
Seymour Schulich’s gift will enable the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry to substantially upgrade its current research infrastructure as well as support annual undergraduate scholarships, graduate, post-graduate, and post-doctoral fellowships; and visits by internationally renowned scholars in chemistry.
Seymour Schulich, Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, has donated one of the largest gifts in the history of the Technion and Israeli higher education. In recognition of Schulich’s transformational gift, the Technion has renamed its highly ranked Faculty of Chemistry to the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry.
Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig, an internationally renowned chemist, former Dean of the Faculty, and now President of the Technion, announced the new gift from the Technion’s Mount Carmel campus in Haifa. “We are honored that Seymour Schulich selected the Technion to make his mark in Israel. The Schulich gift will propel the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry to the forefront of chemistry teaching and research in the world. This contribution to the Technion and the State of Israel will enable the Technion to attract and support the best faculty members from Israel and abroad. These young faculty members will, in turn, draw the most promising graduate students, who will serve as teaching assistants to elite undergraduate students. We are confident that the name Schulich will soon become the standard for excellence in chemistry both in Israel and abroad.”
The Technion is one of the world’s most respected scientific-technological universities and centers of applied research. Profs. Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of ubiquitin mediated protein degradation in living cells. Some 13,000 students from 35 countries are enrolled at the Technion.
The Technion’s Faculty of Chemistry grants bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees and is considered Israel’s leading center for teaching and research in the field. Over the past decade, faculty members have successfully competed for and secured over $20 million in research grants, registered close to 60 patents, and established seven start-up companies. Faculty members have published more than 2,100 papers in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature, Science, and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Graduates are pursuing careers in academia, research institutes, and the private sector, and play a key role in Israel’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Faculty members hold leading positions both in academia and industry.
Over the past two decades, Schulich has donated millions of dollars to universities and health care centers in Canada and the United States. His gifts include the Schulich School of Business at York University; the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario; the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary; and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.
In paying tribute to Schulich’s generosity, Mr. Arnold Ludwick, National President of the Canadian Technion Society said, “Seymour Schulich is an extraordinary philanthropist who demonstrates a rare combination of vision and commitment. He initiated this gift both out of recognition of Technion’s leadership in the advancement of science and technology and to concretely demonstrate the importance to assist Israel, particularly at this crucial time in her history. We are confident that this unprecedented gift will serve as an inspiration to others to boost their support of Israel.”
The Schulich Faculty of Chemistry will be formally dedicated at a ceremony on the Technion’s Mount Carmel campus later this year in the presence of the Schulich family, the leadership of the Canadian Technion Society, and leading figures from the worlds of science, technology, and education.