Nobel laureates demand funds to revive academic institutions

Ten Nobel Prize winners call on gov't to adopt the Shochat Committee's recommendations to "save" Israeli academia and research.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
technion 88 (photo credit: )
technion 88
(photo credit: )
Ten Nobel Prize winners now visiting the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology called on the government to adopt the Shochat Committee's recommendations, published almost a year ago, to "save" Israeli academia and research. They were joined in their plea on Monday by hundreds of scientists from Israel and abroad attending a scientific conference at the Technion campus in Haifa. Technion president Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig said: "We are here to celebrate [Israel's achievements over 60 years in] science, but unfortunately, we see today a different Israeli leadership than in the distant past. Government cuts in academic budgets is causing them to decline and have created a serious brain drain. From here, I call on the government to adopt the Shochat Committee's recommendations immediately to save Israeli academia," Apeloig said. Technion Prof. Aharon Ciechanover, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004, said: "I was born in Haifa when the state was born and received all my education here. The Technion is my home... Unfortunately, I see great danger to the universities... People are seeking an exit because of the situation and focusing less on basic research because they have no budget." Prof. David Gross, a Nobel Physics laureate from the US, added that Israel "is living in the past and not investing in the future. It is very painful for me [to watch]." The Shochat Committee recommended (among other things) raising university tuition and enabling students to pay it with long-term loans, while significantly increasing budgets for faculty and research.