Quick Facts
Biography
Chaim Leib Pekeris (June 15, 1908 – February 24, 1993) was an Israeli-American physicist and mathematician. He made notable contributions to geophysics and the spectral theory of many-electron atoms, in particular the Helium atom. He was also one of the designers of the first computer in Israel, WEIZAC.
Biography
Pekeris was born in Alytus, Vilna Governorate. With the assistance of his uncle, Pekeris and his two brothers emigrated to the United States around 1925. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925 graduating in 1929 with a B.Sc. in meteorology. Pekeris stayed at MIT for his graduate studies and became a student of Carl-Gustav Rossby. He graduated with his doctoral degree in 1933.
In 1934 Pekeris joined the faculty at M.I.T. as an instructor in geophysics in the Department of Geology. He became a US citizen in 1938. Pekeris remained at M.I.T until 1941 when he moved to the Hudson Laboratories of Columbia University to conduct military research. In 1946 he joined the Institute for Advanced Study. Teddy Kollek said "Let me simply say that Chaim Pekeris played a most significant role in the establishment of the State of Israel." Pekeris moved to Israel in 1948 and joined the Weizmann Institute as head of its Department of Applied Mathematics in 1949.
He died in Rehovot, Israel on February 24, 1993.
Awards and honors
- Rockefeller Fellow (1934)
- Guggenheim Fellowship (1946)
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1972)
- Vetlesen Prize (1974)
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1980)
- Israel Prize, for physics (1980).