Israeli Tech Briefs – U.S. President Awards Israeli for High-Tech Innovation

President Obama presents highest U.S. honor for technological achievement to Eli Harari, co-founder of SanDisk, whose company pioneered the use of flash computer storage technology.

By Amitai Ziv and TheMarker

 

SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari, whose company pioneered the use of flash computer storage technology, has won this year’s National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest U.S. honor for technological achievement.

“One month after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Eli Harari came to America from Israel to study the effects of radiation on electronics in space,” U.S. President Barack Obama said at the award ceremony last week. “The physics he learned as a PhD student at Princeton led him to co-found SanDisk, and, eventually, to the creation and commercialization of flash storage technology.” Harari founded SanDisk with Sanjay Mehrotra, who is today the company’s CEO. (Amitai Ziv)

In another Tech update:

Kaiima sets up U.S. unit in St. Louis

Kaiima Bio-Agritech, an Israeli startup that has developed a way to improve crop productivity without using genetically modified organisms, is establishing its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis. Sharon Berberich, who has held several senior positions with Dow AgroSciences and agrochemical company Monsanto, will head the new unit. “We chose St. Louis as the base of our U.S. operations because of the region’s unique ecosystem that combines an entrepreneurial environment with strong plant science research and commercial activity,” she said. (TheMarker Staff)

 

View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/business/1.628328