AHARONOV, YAKIR

AHARONOV, YAKIR (1932– ), Israeli physicist. Aharonov was born in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Ḥayyim and received his B.Sc. from the Haifa Technion (1956). While working under Professor Boehm on his doctorate at Bristol University in England in 1959, Aharonov discovered the Aharonov-Boehm Effect, essential to quantum theory and of far-reaching impact on modern physics. After receiving his Ph.D. from Bristol University (1960), he taught at Brandeis University (1960–61) and Yeshiva University (1964–67) in the U.S. From 1973 he held a joint position as professor of theoretical physics at Tel Aviv University and at the University of South Carolina. Aharonov is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the Israel National Academy of Science, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Prizes and awards include the Rothschild Prize in physics (1984), the Elliot Cresson Medal (1991), and the Wolf Prize in physics (1998). In 1989 he was awarded the Israel Prize in physics. (Fern Lee Seckbach and Ruth Rossing (2nd ed.)