Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will partner to build an applied sciences campus in New York City that officials hope will transform the metropolis into a center for entrepreneurship and technology innovation to rival California's Silicon Valley. In a news conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the schools' proposal had been selected in the multi-billion-dollar competition. The news conference was viewed live in the Technion campus in Haifa, in a crowd that included the recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Prof Dan Schechtman, who teaches at the Israeli university. Seven universities and consortiums submitted bids to build a campus in exchange for nearly free city land and up to $100 million in city improvements. Cornell and Technion have promised city officials the program will be up and running before the end of 2012, in existing city space. In a statement by Israel's New York Consul General Ido Aharoni, the Israeli official said the State of Israel was "grateful for the opportunity to introduce Israel's creative spirit to New York City's new technological center through this unique Technion-Cornell partnership."
