When Israel Imagines, the World Is Transformed
Did you know many of the technologies you use every day come from Israel? Scientists and engineers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have impacted the way people around the world live, work, eat, treat disease, and more. Here are just a few of the world-changing innovations born at the Technion.
High Tech
PDF, GIF & TIFF
Based on a data compression method developed by Profs. Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv, these file formats revolutionized digital document and image storage.
USB Flash Drive
Alumnus Dov Moran invented the first thumb drive in 1995, followed by the USB flash drive in 1999. It was sold to SanDisk for $1.6 billion in 2006.
Texting
The first messaging platform, ICQ, that evolved into texting was developed by alumnus Dr. Yossi Vardi. It was sold to AOL for $408 million in 1998.
Health and Medicine
Azilect
This Parkinson’s medication eases the symptoms of the disease and slows its progression. The drug was invented by Profs. Moussa Youdim and John Finberg in collaboration with Teva Pharmaceuticals and developed at the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.
Pillcam
This “pill” is an alternative to gastronomic invasive procedures. Invented by Gavriel Iddan, recipient of three Technion degrees, the swallowable camera transmits 50,000 color images as it makes the journey through the digestive tract and is then naturally excreted.
Velcade
The Nobel Prize-winning research by Profs. Avram Hershko (left) and Aaron Ciechanover (right) led to the development of several cancer-fighting medications, including this leading drug for multiple myeloma.
Protecting our Planet
Drip Irrigation
Alumnus Raphael Mehoudar developed the next generation of drippers, which revolutionized global agriculture — particularly in arid climates — by greatly increasing the efficiency of water use and enabling tremendous increases in food production in an environmentally friendly way. Today it is used in more than 110 countries.
Desalination
The Technion has played a critical role in advancing modern desalination — particularly by pioneering research on reverse osmosis membranes, improving efficiency, lowering costs, and helping shape the technologies that power Israel’s water revolution. Desalinated water supplies more than 75% of Israel’s domestic water consumption.
Clean Energy
From breakthrough solar materials to next-generation hydrogen fuels and large-scale energy storage, the Technion is unlocking more energy from every ray of sunlight and making it available whenever and wherever it’s needed. Examples include more efficient solar panels, new methods to split water into hydrogen using renewable energy, and advanced batteries for large-scale storage.
Defense and Security
Iron Dome
The Iron Dome short-range missile defense system was conceived by Technion alumnus Chanoch Levin and was developed by him and other alumni at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. With a 90%+ success rate, Iron Dome has saved millions of lives and billions of dollars in damage to infrastructure.
Arrow Antimissile
The creation of the Arrow 1 long-range mobile defense system was the brainchild of Technion alumnus Dov Raviv and was developed and led by him and Technion alumni at Israel Aerospace Industries in 1990. Over the years, other alumni improved the system. Arrow 3 was deployed for the first time in June 2025 to intercept ballistic missiles launched by Iran.
Cyber Security
HMAC is one of the most widely used cryptographic primitives in the world. Coinvented by alumnus Hugo Krawczyk, it protects secure web browsing (HTTPS), messaging apps, and banking systems. His work underpins modern internet security infrastructure.