Ideas for clean, sustainable energy production were on the agenda during a visit to Washington University early last week by a delegation of academics from Israel’s Technion University.

“I think the issue of renewable energy is probably the most important field for research right now because the problems we’re facing as human kind are highly challenging,” said Professor Lilac Amirav. “Our entire way of life will change drastically if we don’t start now to look at solutions.”

Amirav was one of five Technion representatives in town for a brief conference at the university examining energy issues. The event, the first of its kind, was built on the efforts of Wash U’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Amirav is studying photocatalysis, or ways to make light into energy.

“This is basically what nature has been doing for many years,” said the 32-year-old who began her work in the field of nanotechnology. “We’re trying to make artificial systems that would mimic the photosynthesis process and convert sunlight into some kind of chemical fuel. People have been working in this field for about 30 years now without any major breakthroughs.”

Amirav said that Israel was the perfect environment for enterprising scientific research on energy.

“It’s a high-tech state. We’re a startup nation,” she said. “But we are also a very small state that is facing challenges in terms of our neighbors so when people look at problems with oil, for us, it is a matter of survival, really.”

Yair Ein-Eli, a Technion professor who deals mainly with batteries for electric vehicles, said the field was an expanding one.

“It’s going to grow more and more,” he said. “The challenge is to have a battery that will be capable of delivering mileage and safety at the same time.”

Making his first visit to St. Louis, Ein-Eli said the campus and the city were both beautiful. He noted that Israel had a lot to offer the United States and the world on energy issues.

“We have the ability to look differently on challenges and questions being asked,” said the 46-year-old. “Our abilities in the technological aspects are quite high as well.”

Alon Dana, a doctoral student and the only non-professor in the group, said his interest was in the area of where to keep power once you’ve created it.

“I believe that energy storage is the next challenge we must address because our society is based on fossil fuels. This is no secret,” he said. “We want to get wind and solar to be a certain percentage of our total energy consumption. These energies are intermittent so we have to store the energy in order to supply it to the consumer.”

He said ideas are already bubbling to the surface.

“What we are aiming at is taking water and air together with renewable energy to produce high-energy chemicals,” said Dana, 30. “Then once you combust them, you get back water and air so you are pretty much in a sustainable cycle.”

Sporting a lapel pin with a Star of David and a Technion insignia, he said that Israel’s limitations are, in some ways, its strengths.

“Basically, the country itself is not rich with natural resources,” he noted. “We only have human resources. Collaboration is very important. It’s like an import or export.”

Gideon Grader, 55, said that energy consumption and creation were topics of common interest in both America and Israel.

“The issue of energy stability and alternative sources for energy is a universal need for all countries who don’t have many oil wells in their backyard,” he said. “Israel is certainly one of these small countries that is energy dependent.”

Grader, a professor of chemical engineering who specializes in materials, particularly ceramics, said that this program showed the importance of partnership between the Technionand Washington University.

“One of our objectives is to be able to increase the cooperation of our university with the other institutions,” he said. “The prospect of being able to cooperate with Washington University in St. Louis is very nice and we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”

Boaz Golany, vice-president of external relations and resource development for Technion, said that the big story wasn’t what was under discussion but rather that discussion was taking place at all.

“The event itself is of marginal importance,” he said. “What is important here is the proposed collaboration between these two universities. In this day and age, the name of the game in higher education is all about collaboration. It is all about creating networks.”

That’s something that’s been difficult for Israel to do at times due to the political situation in the turbulent Middle East which sometimes hampers academic partnerships just as it does economic, military and strategic ones.

Golany said such educational linkages are vital.

“The days in which one university could do everything on its own are gone,” he said. “Every university is looking for partners.”

The idea of closer relations has been building between the two schools since a trip by a Washington University delegation to Israel about eight years ago. Planning for this event has been going on since last summer.