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People In Their Own Words Knowledge Has No Age

Emer. Prof. Gershon Grossman continues to
expand his cryogenic cooling research, and is
even learning biology as an ordinary student

Emer. Prof. Gershon Grossman always knew he wanted to be
an engineer. “As a child, I loved taking things apart and
putting them back together,” he remembers. “But when
it came time to choose a course of study, I had no
one to consult. I was wavering between electrical
and mechanical engineering, and the only family
member who could give me relevant advice was a
certified electrician,” he chuckles. In the end, his
decision to pursue mechanical engineering came
from the heart: “Nowadays, when young people are
trying to decide what to study, they often ask what
kind of work they’ll be able to find and how much
money they’ll earn. I made my choice based on my
interests: I chose mechanical instead of electrical
engineering because I wanted to work with my hands.”

Emer. Prof. Grossman first walked through the Technion’s
gates in the fall of 1967 as a soldier enrolled in the Atuda
(Academic Reserve) program, and he managed to complete his MSc
during his military service. In 1967 he moved to the United States to complete
his PhD at MIT. After a stint working as an engineer in an American company,
he was invited to return to the Technion as an assistant professor in the faculty.
Among the many roles he has held, Emer. Prof. Grossman served as the faculty
dean for five years (“they told me it was a thankless job, but I enjoyed broad
support and cooperation”), and established the Energy Forum at the Neaman
Institute, which works to help governmental
ministries address energy-related issues in Israel.

What are you researching right now? the images they produce are unclear due
to thermal noise. If the detector is cooled
1 “After serving my time as dean, to -200 degrees Celsius, the electrons
I established a lab to research ‘calm down’. Our job is to develop the
cooler. What we are building here is
developments in cryogenic cooling – a actually a trinity of the detector, the
cooler, and a Dewar flask (a thermos to
technology enabling industrial cooling prevent the detector from losing heat).
This type of development also has
at very low temperatures for a range of applications in medicine, transportation
and other fields.”
needs and uses. For instance, right now

we are working on a project supported

by the Ministry of Defense for cooling

infrared detectors. These detectors can Water cooler for central
air conditioning
see far into the distance in the dark, but

28 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering