• A test of the revolutionary Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts a short-range rocket for the first time in history. Originally ridiculed as impossible, Iron Dome saved countless Israeli lives endangered by missiles fired from Gaza in the summers of 2012 and 2014, achieving an intercept success rate of 90 percent. In 2017, Israelis voted Iron Dome the country’s most innovative invention.
• Technion Prof. Daniel Shechtman wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the quasicrystal.
• SesameEnable is developed as the world’s first smartphone for people with severely limited use of their hands. The award-winning phone is powered by voice control and head tracking.
• HomeBioGas introduces the first highly efficient, easy-to-assemble system to turn organic household waste into clean renewable cooking gas and liquid fertilizer. HomeBioGas is now used in 90 countries, and the company sponsors deployment of systems in underserved communities to address health problems caused by indoor air pollution and methane gas emissions from organic waste.
• Israeli women’s basketball team Elitzur Ramla wins the women’s EuroCup final in France.
• Israel sends aid to Japan in the wake of the deadly earthquake and tsunami. Teams of Israeli aid experts remain in Japan for years helping communities pick up the pieces.
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