Zvi Arad ( he, צבי ארד,16 April 1942, in

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

– 4 February 2018, in Petah Tikva, Israel) was an Israeli mathematician, acting president of

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

, and president of

Netanya Academic College Netanya Academic College ( he, האקדמית נתניה, ''HaAkademit Netanya'') is a private college based in Netanya, Israel. Established in 1994 by a team from Bar-Ilan University, it has an enrolment of around 4,000 undergraduate students. It ...

Biography

Zvi Arad began his academic studies in the Mathematics Department of

. He received his first degree in 1964 and after army service went on to complete a second and third degree in the Mathematics Department of

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

Academic career

In 1968 Arad joined the academic staff at Bar-Ilan University as an assistant and in 1983 was appointed a full professor. During the years 1978/9 he held the position of Visiting Scientist at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and from 1982 to 1983 held the position of visiting Professor at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Arad held a variety of senior academic posts at Bar-Ilan University. He served as chairman of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Rector and President of the University (succeeding

Ernest Krausz Ernest (Kopul) Krausz (ארנסט קראוס; August 13, 1931 - December 10, 2018) was an Israeli professor of sociology who served as rector and Acting President of Bar Ilan University. He also taught at Netanya Academic College. Biography Ernes ...

, and followed by

Shlomo Eckstein Shlomo Raber Eckstein (1 November 1929 – 12 January 2020) was an Israeli economist, and President of Bar-Ilan University. Biography Eckstein was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. His family emigrated from Germany before World War II to Mexico, which ...

). Together with Professor Bernard Pinchuk he founded Gelbart Institute, an international research institute named after

Abe Gelbart Abraham Markham Gelbart (December 2, 1911 – September 7, 1994) was an American mathematician, the founding dean of the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University and the namesake of the International Research Institute for Mathematic ...

, and the Emmy Noether Institute (Minerva Center). Together with colleagues he established a journal, the Israel Mathematics Conference Proceedings, distributed by the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

(AMS). From 1984–1985 he served as a member of the Council for Higher Education of the State of Israel. In 1982 he was elected a member of Russia's Academy of Natural Sciences. From 1994 he served on the editorial board of the ''Algebra Colloquium'', a journal of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

published by

Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

. He also serves on the editorial board of various international publications: ''South East Asian Bulletin of Mathematics'' of the Asian Mathematical Society, the ''IMCP of Contemporary Mathematics'' published by the American Mathematical Society, and the publication ''Cubo Matemática Educacional'',

Temuco Temuco () is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located south of Santiago. The city grew out from a fort of the same name established in 1881 during Chile's invasion ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. He initiated numerous agreements of cooperation with universities and institutions throughout the world including academic institutes in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, universities and research centers in America,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, etc. He was a member of Israel's first official delegation to the former USSR, under the leadership of President

Ezer Weizman Ezer Weizman (; he, עֵזֶר וַיצְמָן ''Ezer Vaytsman''; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Ai ...

. In an official address, President

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

mentioned Professor Arad's contributions towards the establishment of scientific communications between Israel and the former USSR. In an effort to advance cooperation in research he has headed delegations of scientists to Russia, China, and

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

newspaper (January 21, 1998) described him as one of the pioneers of higher education reform in Israel. The ''

Encyclopaedia Hebraica The ''Encyclopaedia Hebraica'' ( he, האנציקלופדיה העברית) is a comprehensive encyclopedia in the Hebrew language that was published in the latter half of the 20th century.ha-Entsiklopediyah ha-ʻivrit (האנציקלופדיה ...

'' lists Zvi Arad as "fulfilling a key role in the development and advancement of Bar-Ilan University and in the establishment of the University's regional colleges in

Safed Safed (known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), i ...

Ashkelon Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with ...

and the Jordan Valley)." For this achievement he was awarded a certificate of honor by the mayor of each city. The establishment of these colleges began in 1985 and went on to affect the whole of Israel. These colleges advanced the

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...

and

Southern Israel The Southern District ( he, מחוז הדרום, ''Meḥoz HaDarom''; ar, لواء الجنوب) is one of Israel's Districts of Israel, six administrative districts, the largest in terms of land area but the most Population density, sparsely p ...

and brought higher education to the peripheries of Israel.

Netanya Academic College

In 1994, at the request of the mayors of the city of

Netanya Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate I ...

, Yoel Elroi and Zvi Poleg, Arad established the

. He served as president of the college for 24 years. A partner in the initiation and establishment of the college was

Miriam Feirberg Miriam Feirberg-Ikar ( he, מרים פיירברג-איכר; born 11 July 1951) is an Israeli politician currently serving as the mayor of Netanya, a city in the Central District of Israel. Feirberg is the first (elected) female mayor in Netanya a ...

, who at that time served as head of the Education Department of the City of

. Today the college is an accredited institute of higher education that grant first and second academic degrees in a variety of fields.

Published works

Together with his colleague Professor Marcel Herzog, Arad wrote ''Products of Conjugacy Classes'', published by Springer-Verlag. The book facilitated the basis of the establishment of mathematical theory and today forms part of the branch of

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, lattices, and algebras over a field. The term ''a ...

known as Table Algebras, and is attached to central branches in mathematics:

Graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...

, algebra combinations, and theory presentation. Arad coauthored two other books on the subject of table algebra. In 2000 his book was published in the series ''American Mathematical Society Memoirs'' and in January 2002 another book on table algebras was published in the international publication, Springer. Arad was the editor of ''Contemporary Mathematics'', Volume 402.

References

External links