Prof. Eshel Ben Yaacov, researcher of bacterial colonies from Tel Aviv University, passed away

Professor Eshel Ben Yaakov, 63 years old at the time of his death, is also a member of the Hamada Executive Committee and a friend of the Mossad. He died on Friday, June 5, 2015 at his home in Tel Aviv. Eshel Ben Yaacov has served for the past five years as the chairman of the physics teaching supervision committee 

Prof. Eshel Ben Ya'akov, a world-renowned expert in the study of bacterial colonies from Tel Aviv University, has passed away. Professor Ben Yaakov was born in Haifa in 1952. He acquired the three degrees, up to a doctorate in physics, at Tel Aviv University between the years 1970-1982, which he graduated with honors. He did his post-doctoral research at the Kawli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara and later as a member of the Physics Department at the University of Michigan. In 1986 he joined the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University. In the early 2000s, he served as president of the Israel Physics Society. In 2014 he was appointed as a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Professor Ben Yaakov served as a physics professor at Tel Aviv University and engaged in his research in a combination of physics and life sciences. He was extensively involved in creating patterns in the living world, and in recent years he was particularly interested in the self-organization of bacteria and the communication between them and became a leader in the innovative field of biological physics. His research serves as a basis for the search for drug treatments that will work by quoting and disrupting the inter-bacterial communication, or as he used to call it: biological cyberwarfare.

In the last year, Ben Ya'akov began to use the insights he acquired in the fight against cancer, and in the use of oxygen to treat fibromyalgia (Davat).

As a member of Hamada's executive committee, Professor Ben Ya'akov promoted the study of physics, participated in the development of the curriculum in computational science and contributed greatly to turning the program into a recognized 5-unit subject, promoted the inclusion of girls in physics studies, and gave lectures to students and the general public. Hamda's walls are decorated with pictures of bacterial colonies that Ben Yaakov created in laboratories and processed on a computer into works of art.

May his memory be blessed

Eshel Ben Ya'akov has served for the past five years as chairman of the physics teaching supervision committee

Dr. Tzvika Aricha, from the Faculty of Physics, adds: "For the past five years, Prof. Ben Yaacov served as the chairman of the profession committee for the supervision of the teaching of physics at the Ministry of Education. Also in his role as chairman of the subject committee, he contributed significantly so that the students of the State of Israel could reach their full scientific potential."

"Among his work on the committee was the cancellation of the "focus" in the subject of physics, standing up against the initiative of the Ministry of Education to cancel the laboratory exam in physics, supporting the teaching of the subject with the scope of content appropriate for a developed country and encouraging the expansion of the teaching of physics beyond the 5th grade level."

The supervision of the teaching of physics and all physics teachers in Israel feel that they have lost a true partner. A partner who has helped them a lot in recent years."

About Prof. Eshel Ben Yaakov on the Hidaan website:

• The bacteria's prisoner's dilemma - an interview by Prof. Ben Yaacov for the Hidan site
• Weizmann Prize for 2013 to Prof. Eshel Ben Yaakov
• Mutual guarantee between bacteria and fungi
• The smartest bacteria in the world/Scientific American
• A Shakespearean play between bacteria