The Office for Academic Staff handles the appointment, tenure, and promotion of faculty and teaching fellows; sabbaticals and vacations; trips abroad; the appointment of postdocs and academic visitors; scholarships; and prizes. Key facts and initiatives are reported below.
New Faculty Recruitment
As of October 1st, 2020, 60 new faculty members started research and teaching at Technion, of which 15 are women; these numbers include three Technion faculty that are based in Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. Four more faculty will join the Technion in March 2022. Note that five of the faculty who joined the Haifa campus are non-Israelis, which maybe an indication of a welcome trend. We are deep in the process of recruiting for the next academic year (beginning October 2022). The number of faculty members at Technion is climbing at a steady rate (October 2019: 563, October 2020: 576, October 2021: 578); the proportion of women faculty remains ca. 20%. I would like to thank the Deans, the Senate committee members, the Faculty Administrations, and the Faculty Office, who swiftly adapted to the new work environment that was thrust upon us by the pandemic.
Postdoctoral fellows
In the 2020-21 academic year, there were 368 postdocs, 229 from overseas (compared to around 414 in the previous year, of which 273 were from overseas). This is a fair number given the pandemic constraints. We have been flexible in our recruitment procedures for postdocs, from obtaining special entry visas to Israel, to approval of working remotely. We were proactive regarding the situation of graduates from other Israeli research institutes; many of whom could not travel overseas due to the pandemic, and we invited them to join Technion research groups. Perhaps this exposure of first-rate graduates to Technion will have a positive impact on the profile of candidates for the coming years.
Key Initiatives
In addition to the regular workload, we promoted several new initiatives.
>> Together with the Deans, we completed a long process of updating the academic regulations regarding appointment and promotion procedures and redefined the make-up of our academic faculty. This includes streamlining the teaching faculty into a single track; defining the status of research fellows in order to improve our ties with industry; and defining the rank of ‘professor of practice’ and ‘professor of creative arts’ as per the Council for Higher Education guidelines.
>> We are proactive in our efforts to increase the representation of women on all important academic committees. This has not been an easy task, as there are only 35 females (out of 216) at the rank of full professor Technion-wide. I am happy to report that women professors now comprise 39% of the two major senate committees, that handle hiring, tenure, and promotion of senior Technion faculty.
>> On the recommendation of the Senate, an ethical code of conduct for faculty members and senior management was prepared and ratified.
>> With the help of Prof. Ariel Orda, our liaison with the Jacobs Institute in New York, we established regulations, guidelines, and procedures to regulate working with Cornell Tech.
>> Other issues handled included: mentoring new faculty; streamlining faculty submissions for prestigious prizes and awards; appointment of distinguished professors; procedures to approve deferred retirement; remuneration for additional academic workload; and procedures for approving requests to work outside Technion.