Public-Private Partnership to Build Photonics Center in Israel

Oct. 31, 2014—Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer Sheva, Israel, and the Soreq Nuclear Center (NRC), Yavne, Israel, have announced plans to create a national photonics and electro-optics research center in Yavne. In September, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and its Research and Development of Armaments and Technological Infrastructure Administration, awarded the project a budget of 175 million shekels (equivalent, at current exchange rates, to approximately US$46.1 million) over five years.

The photonics center in Israel will provide an infrastructure for researchers and students to explore state-of-the-art photonics research, such as epitaxial growth of semiconductor materials used in electro-optic devices, and devices to pull optical fibers. The center will be located next to the Soreq nuclear facility in Yavne, where it will become the northern branch of BGU.

Cooperation between universities, national laboratories and industry partners has helped to establish numerous such initiatives to develop photonics centers around the world. The project to build the center in Israel will be led by Gabby Sarusi, professor of electro-optics engineering at BGU, and Rafi Lavi, acting head of the Soreq NRC.