“The Technion gave me an entry ticket to the world of computers and I owe it much of my success,” Yanai said. Yanai is considered a world leader in the field of information storage. His revolutionary innovations changed the ways in which companies store, protect, and use data. He initiated the Symmetrix storage array in the 1980s and developed the first “truly scalable grid storage system” for a company called XIV, which was eventually bought by IBM.

When Israeli billionaire Moshe Yanai was a student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, he remembers life being “difficult and demanding.” So the tech whiz chose to fund an incentive to make life a little better for Technion students by awarding professors for being nice.

Yanai donated 40 million shekels — more than $10 million — to establish the prize. Professors are chosen by students based on the excellence of their teaching and “good personal interaction with students.” Prizes are distributed in upwards of 100,000 shekel increments.

According to IBM, Yanai is “One of the most influential contributors in the history of the data-storage industry. His 30 years of technical expertise and design innovation are legendary.”

“The Technion gave me an entry ticket to the world of computers and I owe it much of my success,” Yanai said. Yanai is considered a world leader in the field of information storage. His revolutionary innovations changed the ways in which companies store, protect, and use data. He initiated the Symmetrix storage array in the 1980s and developed the first “truly scalable grid storage system” for a company called XIV, which was eventually bought by IBM.

When Israeli billionaire Moshe Yanai was a student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, he remembers life being “difficult and demanding.” So the tech whiz chose to fund an incentive to make life a little better for Technion students by awarding professors for being nice.

Yanai donated 40 million shekels — more than $10 million — to establish the prize. Professors are chosen by students based on the excellence of their teaching and “good personal interaction with students.” Prizes are distributed in upwards of 100,000 shekel increments.

According to IBM, Yanai is “One of the most influential contributors in the history of the data-storage industry. His 30 years of technical expertise and design innovation are legendary.”