Harry J. Lipkin *50

Harry “Zvi” Lipkin, professor of physics emeritus at the Weizmann Institute and a leading Israeli theoretical physicist, died Sept. 15, 2015, at the age of 94.

Lipkin was born in the United States and graduated from Cornell in 1942. During World War II, he worked at the MIT radiation laboratory on radar. In 1950, he received a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton. That year, he immigrated to Israel with his wife to join the agricultural kibbutz movement in the Upper Galilee.

Upon arriving in Israel, Lipkin was drafted by the government to participate in the establishment of the Dimona nuclear research center. He was one of two Israeli physicists sent to France from 1953 to 1955 to learn how to set up a nuclear reactor.

In 1956, Lipkin was one of the founders of the Weizmann Institute’s department of particle physics and astrophysics. He became one of the pioneers in utilizing group theory. From 1956 to 1958, he was an adviser to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, and he later worked frequently with the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States. His many awards included the Wigner Medal in 2002, named for Eugene P. Wigner, Nobel laureate in 1963 and longtime Princeton physics professor.

Lipkin is survived by his wife, Malka; two children; and a grandchild.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.