Yuval Ne'eman

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Yuval Ne'eman
Minister of Energy & Infrastructure
Faction represented in the Knesset
1981–1992Tehiya
Personal details
Born(1925-05-14)14 May 1925
Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
Died26 April 2006(2006-04-26) (aged 80)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Alma materTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology

Yuval Ne'eman (

Wigner Medal, and the EMET Prize
for Arts, Sciences and Culture.

Biography

Yuval Ne'eman was born in

Technion
.

At the age of 15, Ne'eman also joined the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Ne'eman served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as battalion deputy commander, then as Operations Officer of Tel Aviv, and commander of Givati Brigade
.

Later (1952–54) he served as Deputy Commander of Operations Department of General Staff, Commander of the Planning Department of the IDF. In this role, he helped organize the IDF into a reservist-based army, developed the mobilization system, and wrote the first draft of Israel's defense doctrine.

Between 1958 and 1960 Ne'eman was IDF Attaché in Great Britain, where he also studied for a PhD in physics under the supervision of 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Abdus Salam at Imperial College London. In 1961, he was demobilized from the IDF with a rank of colonel.

In 1981, Ne'eman became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[3]

Between 1998 and 2002 Ne'eman was the head of the Israeli Engineer Association.[4][5]

He died at age 80,[6] on 26 April 2006 in the Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, from a stroke.[7] He was survived by a wife, Dvora; a son and a daughter; and a sister, Ruth Ben-Yisrael [he] (1931-2020).

Scientific career

One of his greatest achievements in physics was his 1961 discovery of the classification of

Eightfold Way, which was also proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann. This SU(3) symmetry laid the foundation of the quark model, independently proposed by Gell-Mann and George Zweig
in 1964.

École de Physique des Houches (Les Houches Physics School), 1972. From left, Yuval Ne'eman, Bryce DeWitt, Kip Thorne
.

Ne'eman was founder and director of the School of Physics and Astronomy at

University of Texas, Austin from 1968 to 1990. He was a strong believer in the importance of space research and satellites to Israel's economic future and security, and thus founded the Israel Space Agency in 1983, which he chaired almost until his death. He also served on the Israel Atomic Energy Commission from 1965 to 1984 and held the position of scientific director in its Soreq
facility. Nee'man was chief scientist of the Defense Ministry from 1974 to 1976.

He was described as "one of the most colorful figures of modern science"[9] and co-authored The Particle Hunters, which was published in English in 1986. The Times Literary Supplement hailed this book as "the best guide to quantum physics at present available".[6]

Political career

In the late 1970s, Ne'eman founded

Minister of Science and Development
, the role later changed to Minister of Science and Technology.

He retained his seat in the

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and Minister of Science and Technology despite not retaking his seat in the Knesset. He lost his ministerial position following the 1992 elections
and did not return to politics.

Awards and recognition

  • In 1969, Ne'eman received the Israel Prize[10] in the field of exact sciences (which he returned in 1992 in protest of the award of the Israel Prize to Emile Habibi).
  • In 1970, he received the Albert Einstein Award[10] for his unique contribution in the field of physics.
  • In 1972, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
  • In 1984, he received the
    Wigner Medal
    , which is awarded every 2 years for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of physics through group theory."
  • In 2003, he received the EMET Prize for Arts, Sciences and Culture for his pioneering contribution in the deciphering of the atomic nucleus and its components, and for his enormous scientific contribution to the development of sub-atomic physics in Israel.

He was also awarded with the College de France Medal and the Officer's Cross of the French Order of Merit (Paris, 1972), the Wigner Medal (Istanbul-Austin, 1982), Birla Science Award (Hyderabad, 1998) and additional prizes and honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and USA.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "In Remembrance of Yuval Ne'eman" Archived October 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Teddy Ne'eman (son of Yuval Ne'eman), PhysicaPlus (פיזיקהפלוס), online magazine of the Israel Physical Society, Issue No. 7
  2. ^ Watson, Andrew. "Yuval Ne'eman Dies at 80 - ScienceNOW". sciencemag.org. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  3. ^ "About Us". World Cultural Council. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "מהנדסים, אדריכלים, אקדמאים במקצועות טכנולוגיים". Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  5. ^ "יובל נאמן בן 80 - הראיון האחרון. פורסם בגלילאו, מאי 2005". 2006-05-31.
  6. ^ a b Lawrence Joffe (14 May 2006). "Obituary: Yuval Ne'eman | Science". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  7. ^ Nadav Shragai (26 April 2006). "Professor, veteran politician Yuval Ne'eman dies at 81". Haaretz. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  8. ^ Basch_Interactive (1980-01-01). "Presidents of Tel Aviv University | Tel Aviv University | Tel Aviv University". English.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  9. ^ Yuval Ne'eman Dies at 80 – Watson 2006 (426): 1. ScienceNOW
  10. ^ a b "Yuval Ne'eman". Utexas.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  11. ^ Yuval Neeman Israel Science and Technology

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuval_Ne%27eman&oldid=1218919099"