Jacob Gedaliah, 32, is the vice president of the "Live Picture" company for business strategy development. "Live Picture" is one of the leading companies in the world in the field of transmitting visual information on the Internet
"Physics will help you anywhere, in any situation, because physics teaches you audacity." This was one of the first sentences that Jacob Gedaliah heard at the Weizmann Institute of Science, during his admission interview for the Institute's Feinberg Seminary, which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year. "In physics, you stand face to face with the universe and say, 'I don't know anything about you, but I will solve your mysteries and do things that have never been done before,'" says Gedaliah. "Entrepreneurs in the business world do the same."
The bridging between the world of business and the science of physics comes naturally to Gdalia. He also believes that high-tech and traditional life complement each other, that failure provides an incentive for success and that the Weizmann Institute of Science, which deals mainly with basic science designed to satisfy intellectual curiosity, equipped him with business skills suitable for the operating principles of the "real world".
"At the Weizmann Institute of Science I was given the opportunity to see how people who are truly excellent work," he says. His request to be admitted as a master's student at the Feinberg seminary was almost rejected. "I had a blackout during the admissions interview. The interview lasted three hours instead of the usual half hour. The professors begged me to say something about physics, anything that came to mind, just so they could assess if I had any knowledge in the field at all. But I forgot everything. It takes audacity to study at the Weizmann Institute of Science." Finally, Gedaliah was told that he could take courses as an external student, and based on his grades in these courses, he was later accepted as a full-fledged student at the seminary.
Gedaliah focused on the study of optics. The knowledge he acquired was later used as the basis for the technology of the companies he founded. These technologies are designed to shorten the transmission time of visual information on the Internet and other communication networks (something that every beginner Internet surfer understands very well its importance). Shortening the transmission time of visual information will allow online trading ("on-line") and the operation of videophones through regular telephone lines. Gadalia's technology is based on translating the principles of the hologram into algorithms, action recipes that the computer is able to "understand" and act upon.
What is a hologram? Gedaliah: "If you want to photograph your family members, they must be present at the scene, so that the visual information of their image is immortalized on the photographic film. But a hologram is a kind of photography method that is content with very little information. To create a hologram, it is enough to know how the light reflected from the photographed object breaks and splits into the different colors of the spectrum. In fact, in a hologram a tiny sample of the resulting light is enough to create the complete image. When this principle is translated into computer language, this means the possibility of saving in the computer's memory and transferring visual information in smaller and lighter files, the transfer of which can be carried out relatively quickly in computer communication networks."
The technology of one of Gedaliah's companies was eventually sold to Microsoft. His second company - RViLO - is located in Jerusalem. RViLO's technology led to a business connection between Gedaliah and John Scully from the "Live Picture" company (Scully previously served as CEO of Pepsi-Cola and "Apple Computer").
"I wake up in the morning with an idea and go out to check if it works - like a physicist in academia," says Gedaliah. "In business and physics it's about creating new worlds."
High-tech and success did not distance Gadalia from its traditional roots. He observes Shabbat and is kosher. "There is no contradiction," says Gedaliah, "at Yeshiva University, where I did my first degree, we studied Talmud for the first half day, and physics for the remaining half day. The idea was that Talmud and physics together create a complete person."
"I definitely think that there are more friendships within me. I aspire to establish my next company in Israel. Israel is second in the world only in technology, after Silicon Valley. In everything to do with audacity, vision and possibilities, Israel is the first in the world."
