Israel

Israeli nanotechnology innovations are part of some of the world’s biggest, most innovative pharmaceutical, water filtration, diagnostic, energy, security – even hair coloring – technologies and products. Nanotechnology became a national investment priority in 2007, with over $150M USD invested in infrastructure and now boasts the world's third largest concentration of nanotechnology startup companies (surpassed only by Silicon Valley and the Boston Technology Corridor).  

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Israel Institute of Technology is ranked as the top university in both Israel and the Middle East, and one of the top 100 universities in the world (according to ARWU). It is home to the Russel Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) which was established in January 2005 as a joint endeavour of the Russell Berrie Foundation, the government of Israel and the Israel Institute of Technology. It is one of the largest academic programs in Israel and is among the largest nanotechnology centers in the world. RBNI has over 110 faculty members and approximately 300 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, with multidisciplinary activities spanning 14 different faculties. RBNI contains state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation for fabrication and characterization, including a cluster supercomputer for simulations, modelling and computational nanotechnology research.

The WIN-Technion partnership started in 2010 when several WIN members visited Israel as part of a NanoOntario Delegation to the NanoIsrael Conference. There an agreement was signed between the University of Waterloo and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in March 2014 to support collaborations in quantum information science, nanotechnology and water research.

Workshop in Haifa in 2014

A call for proposals for the Haifa-Technion-UW Research Award valued at $30,000 CAD for research and mobility was announced in May 2014;. Nine WIN members applied for this award, including Pu Chen, Mariana Foldvari, Frank Gu, Holger Kleinke, Adrian Lupascu, Hamed Majedi, Derek Schipper, Michael Tam, and Norman Zhou. Ten new projects were awarded to advance research and innovation in Nanotechnology, eight of which went to WIN members for the following: 

  • Adrian Lupascu (WIN), Jonathan Baugh (WIN), Aharon Blank (Technion), Tal Mor (Technion) and Itamar Kahn (Technion): Magnetic Resonance and Algorithmic Cooling-theory and Applications of Small Quantum Information Processors (I) and (II) 

  • Adrian Lupascu (WIN) and Eyal Buks (Technion): Non-linear Dynamics and Back-action Evading Measurements of Nanomechanical Resonators Coupled to Flux Qubits 

  • Hamed Majedi (WIN) and Alex Hayat (Technion): Superconductor-semiconductor Nanostructures for Quantum Technologies 

  • Norman Zhou (WIN) and Yaron Paz (Technion): Removal of Organic Pollutants in Drinking Water using Plasmonic Photocatalytic Membranes 

  • Derek Schipper (WIN) and Nir Tessler (Technion): The Simultaneous Sorting and Alignment of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes for Application in High Performance Organic Field Effect Transistors 

  • Michael Tam (WIN) and Abraham Marmur (Technion): Development of Functional Cellulose Nanocrystals for the Stabilization of Pickering Emulsions 

  • Holger Kleinke (WIN) and Yaron Amouyal (Technion): Formation of Periodic Defects at the Nanometric Length Scale in Thermoelectric Compounds for Energy Harvesting 

  • Frank Gu (WIN) and Josue Sznitman (Technion): Mucoadhesive Nanoparticle Drug-laden Liquid Instillations for Pulmonary Drug Delivery 

A second funding program was announced in 2018 for PIs with existing projects requiring additional support, with a corresponding workshop held in Haifa-Technion in November 2018

This event brought together some of the top minds in quantum information science, nanotechnology and water for pure and applied research. The new partnership agreement between WIN and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will connect students and faculty from both institutions with global markets through technology transfer and commercialization opportunities with industrial partners in Canada and in Israel.