Israeli scholar and former president of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Yitzhak Apeloig, passed away on Thursday at the age of 81.
"Despite national and global crises, his years in office were marked by exceptional academic development, the establishment of new research centers, faculty recruitment, and the advancement of international collaborations,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.
Sivan called Apeloig's research "ahead of its time," saying that he was "among the pioneers in the use of computational tools based on quantum theory to predict the properties of molecules, as well as a pioneer in the chemistry of organosilicon compounds."
Among his many distinctions, he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Academia Europaea, received an honorary decoration from the president of Germany, and an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin.
He was also awarded the Humboldt Prize, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Award, the Kipping Award of the American Chemical Society, the Schrödinger Medal, the Gold Medal of the Israel Chemical Society, and the Distinguished Citizen of Haifa Award by the city of Haifa.
Leading Technion into the 2000s
Apeloig, who presided over the Technion from 2001 to 2009, was born in 1944 in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, to Polish parents who fled the Nazi invasion. He emigrated to Israel at the age of three and grew up in Ramat Gan.
He served in the IDF's Nahal Paratroopers Brigade, fought on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts during the Yom Kippur War, and even wrote his doctoral dissertation during six months of reserve duty in the Sinai.
He finished his postdoctoral studies at Princeton University, joined the Technion faculty in 1976, was promoted to professor in 1983, and was appointed dean of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry in 1995.
In 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks and a difficult socio-political situation in Israel, Apeloig assumed the presidency of the Technion, where he expanded interdisciplinary research, increased investment in research, and in infrastructure.
He also doubled the scope of funded research and scholarship support, promoted the integration of new populations into the Technion, including ultra-Orthodox Jews and Ethiopian Israelis, strengthened ties with high-tech industries, and advanced dialogue between science and technology and the humanities and social sciences.
His presidency took place during the Second Intifada, Operation Defensive Shield, and the Second Lebanon War, being marked by an unstable Israel, a severe economic crisis, and student and faculty strikes.
“Distinguished Professor Apeloig led the Technion with quiet confidence and steadfast leadership, guiding it to new heights in academic research and in the Technion’s impact on the State of Israel and beyond," said Sivan.