Yuval Ne'eman - Scientific Career

Scientific Career

One of his greatest achievements in physics was his 1961 discovery of the classification of hadrons through the SU(3) flavour symmetry, now named the Eightfold Way, which was also proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann. This SU(3) symmetry laid the foundation of the quark model, proposed by Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964 (independently of each other).

Ne'eman was founder and director of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University from 1965 to 1972, president of Tel Aviv University from 1971 to 1975, and director of its Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies from 1979 to 1997. He was also the co-director (along with Sudarshan) of the Center for Particle Theory at the University of Texas, Austin from 1968 to 1990. He was a strong believer in the importance of space research and satellites to Israel's economic future and security, and thus founded the Israeli Space Agency in 1983, which he chaired almost until his death. He also served on the Atomic Energy Commission from 1965 to 1984 and held the position of scientific director in its Soreq facility. Neeman was chief scientist of the Defense Ministry from 1974 to 1976.

He was described as "one of the most colorful figures of modern science" and co-authored The Particle Hunters, which was published in English in 1986. The Times Literary Supplement hailed this book as "the best guide to quantum physics at present available".