Yakir Aharonov

Yakir Aharonov ForMemRS (Hebrew: יקיר אהרונוב; born August 28, 1932) is an Israeli physicist who studies quantum physics. He has worked as a professor at many universities, including Chapman University in California. Since 2008, he has been a professor there, and before that, he taught at the Perimeter Institute from 2009 to 2012. He is also a professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the University of South Carolina.

Aharonov is known for his important work in understanding how tiny particles behave. In June 2024, he was elected to serve in the Royal Society of London, which is a group that recognizes great scientists for their discoveries. He also leads an organization called IYAR, which helps support advanced research in Israel. His ideas have helped scientists learn more about the strange and exciting world of quantum physics.

Biography

Yakir Aharonov was born in Haifa. He studied at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, earning a BSc in 1956. He then went to Bristol University, UK and got his Ph.D. in 1960. After that, he taught at Brandeis University and the Yeshiva University in the United States.

He is married to Nily, who works in education, and they have two children. His brother, Dov Aharonov, taught mathematics at the Technion, and his niece, Dorit Aharonov, teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Academic career

Yakir Aharonov studied how tiny particles behave in ways that seem strange but are important for understanding the world. In 1959, he worked with David Bohm and discovered something called the Aharonov–Bohm effect, for which he won a big prize called the Wolf Prize in 1998.

Aharonov also worked on ideas about how events in the future might affect what happens now. With his team, he found ways to test these ideas without changing the results too much. He also made predictions about how electric and magnetic forces can affect moving particles.

His career included teaching at many universities, such as Brandeis University, Yeshiva University, Tel Aviv University, the University of South Carolina, George Mason University, and since 2008, he has been a professor at Chapman University.

Awards and recognition

Yakir Aharonov received many honors for his work in physics. Some of these include the Israel Prize in exact science in 1989, the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1998, and the National Medal of Science in 2010, given by President Barack Obama. He was also elected to prestigious groups such as the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. In 2024, he became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.