#1 The Technion
Most Israeli engineers are graduates of the Technion. Nobel laureates in chemistry Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Dan Shechtman are on the faculty. In 2011, the Technion partnered with Cornell University to build a high-tech campus in New York, funded by a $133 million gift. In 2013, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing gave $130 million to bring the MIT of Israel and Shantou University together to create a Chinese Technion.
#2 The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC)
The ELSC at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's biggest brain research center. It was founded in 2009 thanks to a $50 million gift from the Edmond J. Safra Foundation. The center is part of the ten-year-long Human Brain Project, which seeks to better understand brain structure and function using Information and Communication Technologies.
#3 The Weizmann Institute
The Weizmann Institute was named after Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president and an early leader in cancer research. A close partner of the Institut Pasteur, the institute has five faculties: math and computer science, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology. The Weizmann Institute ranked tenth out of 750 universities evaluated for their scientific impact and collaboration in the 2015 CWTS Leiden Ranking. Weizmann is the only non-American institute in the top ten.
#4 The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR)
Ben-Gurion University has played in a key role in the development of the Negev ever since its 1969 founding. Known for computer science, the university has many research centers, including the BIDR, pioneers in desert research. Nearby is the resting place of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father, who spoke fittingly of making "the desert bloom."
#5 The Volcani Center
With inventions like GPS for dairy cattle, the Volcani Center is a hotbed of agricultural creativity. In addition to its six institutes and 800 researchers, engineers, students and technical assistants, the center is home to the Israel Gene Bank, which houses 186 species of local, endangered wild plants.