Theoretical and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity, the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems. His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem, Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
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| Shalom to all: Bacteria art by Eshel Ben-Jacob |
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity,
the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems.
His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine
began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a
mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have
six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem,
Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the
past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria
species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63. - See more at:
http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity,
the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems.
His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine
began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a
mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have
six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem,
Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the
past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria
species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63. - See more at:
http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity,
the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems.
His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine
began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a
mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have
six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem,
Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the
past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria
species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity,
the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems.
His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine
began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a
mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have
six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem,
Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the
past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria
species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Theoretical
and experimental physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at
Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and a pioneer of
the study of bacterial intelligence and social behavior, died
unexpectedly at his home in Israel June 5. He was 63.
Ben-Jacob was one of the world’s leading experts in biocomplexity,
the theory of self-organization and pattern formation in open systems.
His longstanding collaboration with CTBP co-director Herbert Levine
began in the mid-1980s, at a time when each was working on a
mathematical answer to the centuries-old question of why snowflakes have
six sides and a unique crystalline pattern. After solving that problem,
Ben-Jacob began researching bacterial self-organization, and over the
past 25 years he developed and studied new pattern-forming bacteria
species.
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Eshel Ben-Jacob
Ben-Jacob joined CTBP in 2005, shortly after the center was founded at the University of California, San Diego. The center moved to Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative in 2011 when CTBP founders Levine, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes were recruited to the BRC to expand their groundbreaking biological studies into cancer research and treatment. At Rice, Ben-Jacob joined his CTBP colleagues in focusing on ways to exploit the social behavior and decision-making process of cancer cells to develop new treatments that outsmart the disease.
Ben-Jacob was the Maguy-Glass Chair in Physics of Complex Systems, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
His many honors and contributions to science included his election in 2014 to the American Philosophical Society, the United States oldest learned society, the 1986 Landau Research Prize, the 1996 Siegle Research Prize of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the 2013 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences. Ben-Jacob was former president of the Israel Physical Society and a former chair of the Israel Ministry of Education’s Advisory Council of High School Physics Education.
- See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/08/rice-mourns-loss-of-physicist-eshel-ben-jacob/#sthash.hi4llBcO.dpuf
Gemma, can you tell us what that is, exactly? I mean besides just gorgeous?
ReplyDelete@wildcucumber
DeleteThe news is not very gorgeous, the post is to inform that a person that was special to me just died.
If you mean the picture, that is bacteria in Petri dish. Normally colorless, the added dyes are absorbed by the bacteria and express their density. The rest is art and photoshop.
Wiki about Ben-Jacob's bacteria
"Ben-Jacob's bacteria are two pattern forming social bacteria strains, the Paenibacillus dendritiformis and the Paenibacillus vortex discovered in the early 1990s by Ben-Jacob’s group. These bacteria are widely known for their ability to generate large colonies (with the number of bacteria exceeding many folds the number of people on earth) with highly complex organization."
Here a lecture by Dr. Ben-Jacob: "Learning from Bacteria about Social Networks".
And an article: Colonies of Growing Bacteria Make Psychedelic Art
I'm sorry Gemma, that was insensitive of me. I am so captured by the man's art that I dashed that off without thinking. My apologies, and my condolences. Thanks for the links, these should be really interesting.
DeleteThanks, Gemma - this was nice. He was quite a researcher. You sent me this link once to his 528 published papers: Dr. Ben-Jacob Papers
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you had the chance to connect with him and share your ideas. I will never forget that Saturday when he emailed me and said, "Let's talk now on Skype." I was like, 'oh, crap, oh, crap, oh, crap' and sent you like 30 emails to see if you were available. Glad it all worked out.
Such a shame, I did not realize he was only 63, much too young.
I'm Eshel's daughter. I wanted to let you know that I saw the post and was touched. There's comfort now in seeing how many lives he touched.
ReplyDeleteAya
Aya,
Deletemy deepest condolences.
You are right - he touched many lives - and mine too, in the most incredible way. Our encounter was short, but he was curious, encouraging and motivating.
I was so saddened by this news. He was a brilliant scientist, and also a very kind and deeply human person.
Marta
Dr. Ben-Jacob's research is ahead of its time. Incredible that he saw such beauty in the symmetry of microbes. I would have never believed it.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences to all that feel his loss.
Anon
Aya, I am sorry for your loss. I became aware of your father through the beautiful artwork. With tributes like these, I am thankful for the opportunity to learn more and have a deeper understanding. I have no doubt his pioneering work will continue to touch, educate and inspire for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences to you and your family.
Jeff