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Israel tech industry pioneer Uzia Galil dies at 96
Galil founded Elron, dubbed the first Hebrew startup, out of which Elbit, Orbotech and Given Imaging and many more companies grew.
Uzia Galil, one of the founding fathers of Israel s technology industry, died last night. He was 96.
Galil was born in Bucharest in 1925. He immigrated to Israel (then Palestine) at the age of 16, after his education in Romania was ended by the introduction of race laws against Jews. After reaching Israel, he completed his studies in electrical engineering at the Technion in 1947. When the State of Israel was declared he was drafted into the Israel Navy and served in it until 1957. He later headed the electronics department in the Physics Faculty at the Technion.
Uzia Galil, a founding father of Israel s high tech industry (YouTube screenshot)
Uzia Galil, one of the founding fathers of Israel’s tech ecosystem, has died at the age of 96.
Galil, who received the Israel Prize, the nation’s highest accolade in 1997 for his contribution to the state with the development of its tech industry, was a founder of Elron Electronic Industries, the first high-tech multinational holding company based in Israel.
Since 1962 the firm has helped set up, fund and develop some 30 technology-based companies in a variety of fields, including medical imaging, defense electronics, communications, machine vision and semiconductors.
Galil served as CEO of Elron for 38 years until 1999 and was the chairman or director of most of the companies founded by Elron. Prior to founding Elron, he was the head of the Electronic Department of the Faculty of Physics at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (1957-1962). He was also the head of electronic research in t