The Haim Nessyahu Prize in Mathematics


The Haim Nessyahu Prize has been awarded annually since 1995. Before describing the prize and its winners, let us give some information about Haim Nessyahu following the biography on the Israel Mathematical Union website:

Haim Nessyahu was born in Tel Aviv, on 21 June 1964, the only son to Judith and Mordechay Nessyahu. His long journey of studying began at home, where his intellectual and almost antipodal mother and father created a very fertile ground for learning and nourished his zest for learning, questioning and thinking. His formal education began in 1970 in the "Gavrieli" school, in Tel Aviv. Then, in 1973, Haim joined a newly formed class of gifted children, the first of its kind in Israel. Haim stayed with this class throughout the years in "Gretz" primary school and high-school "Ironi Dalet". In that class, Haim met most of his lifetime friends that accompanied him and his family until his last day and beyond. In 1982, Haim joined the military academic reserve, in the framework of which he studied towards a B.Sc. degree in mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University. He graduated in 1984, Summa Cum Laude. During the following five-year military service in the Intelligence Force, Haim completed his Masters in applied mathematics under the supervision of Professor Eitan Tadmor and began working on his doctoral thesis. After resigning from the army, in 1989, he joined Professor Tadmor at NASA Langley Research Center, in Hampton Virginia, as a graduate fellow, where he continued his mathematical research. From there, Haim went on a six-month backpacking trip to South America, after which he returned to Tel Aviv University as an Instructor. He completed his doctoral dissertation in 1994 and was accepted for a post-doctoral position as Assistant Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of Los Angeles. Before departing to Los Angeles, Haim and Dafna, his partner, went on a trip to the Far East. At dawn of 26 April 1994, on their way down from the Annapurna Mountain in Nepal, Haim suffered a heart failure and passed away.

The Haim Nessyahu Prize was established by Haim Nessyahu's parents in memory of their son. The award is given for outstanding achievements in a mathematical Ph.D. dissertation. A specially appointed committee evaluates the submissions and the most outstanding one is selected to receive the prize. We list the winners of this award below in the form Year, Winner, Title of thesis, Advisor, Institution:
1995 Yuval Roichman, Cayley Graphs of the Symmetric Groups, Alex Lubotzky, The Hebrew University

1996 Alexander Leibman, Multiple Recurrence Theorems for Nilpotent Group Actions, Vitaly Bergelson and Yoav Benyamini, The Technion

1997 Mark Rudelson, Problems in Local Theory of Banach Spaces, Joram Lindenstrauss, The Hebrew University

1998 Doron Levy, Topics in Approximate Methods for Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations, Eitan Tadmor, Tel Aviv University

1998 Ehud Friedgut, Threshold Phenomena in Random Structures, Gil Kalai, The Hebrew University

1999 Semyon Alesker, Topics in Convex Geometric Analysis, Vitali Milman, Tel Aviv University

2000 Dmitry Novikov, Oscillation of Functions Defined by Systems of Ordinary Differential Equations, Sergey Yakovenko, The Weizmann Institute of Science

2000 Isabella Novik, Face Numbers of Polytopes and Manifolds, Gil Kalai, The Hebrew University

2001 Elon Lindenstrauss, Entropy Properties of Dynamical Systems, Benjamin Weiss, The Hebrew University

2002 Gady Kozma, On Some Problems of Corrections and Representations in Fourier Analysis, Alexander Olevskii, Tel Aviv University

2002 Omri M. Sarig, Thermodynamic Formalism for Countable Markov Shifts, Jon Aaronson, Tel Aviv University

2003 Irit Dinur, On the Hardness of Approximating the Minimum Vertex Cover and the Closest Vector in a Lattice, Shmuel Safra, Tel Aviv University

2003 Boaz Tsaban, Infinite-Combinatorial Topology, Hillel Furstenberg, Bar-Ilan University

2005 Boaz Klartag, Topics in Asymptotic Convex Geometry, Vitali Milman, Tel Aviv University

2006 Shiri Artstein, Entropy Methods, Vitali Milman, Tel Aviv University

2006 Tsachik Gelander, Counting Manifolds and Tits' Alternative, Shahar Mozes, The Hebrew University

2007 Asaf Shapira, Graph Property Testing and Related Problems, Noga Alon, Tel Aviv University

2007 Amit Singer, Diffusion Theory of Ion Permeation through Protein Channels of Biological Membranes, Zeev Schuss, Tel Aviv University

2008 Yaron Ostrover, Geometric and Algebraic properties of the group of Hamiltonian Diffeomorphisms, Leonid Polterovich, Tel Aviv University

2008 Adi Shraibman, Complexity Measures of Sign Matrices, Nati Linial, The Hebrew University

2009 Michael Hochman, Combinatorial Methods in Dynamical Systems, Benjamin Weiss, The Hebrew University

2009 Dana Moshkovitz, Two Query Probabilistic Checking of Proofs with Subconstant Error, Ran Raz, The Weizmann Institute of Science

2010 Elad Paran, Split Embedding Problems over Complete Domains, Dan Haran, Tel Aviv University

2010 Zeev Dvir, Extractors, Mergers and the Finite Field Kakeya Problem, Ran Raz, The Weizmann Institute of Science and Amir Shpilka, The Technion

2011 Lev Buhovsky, Topological and Functional Rigidity in Symplectic Topology, Paul Biran, Tel Aviv University

2012 Sasha Sodin, Random Matrices with Independent Entries, and Other Topics in Asymptotic Probability Theory Topology, Vitali Milman, Tel Aviv University

2013 Ronen Eldan, Distribution of Mass in Convex Bodies, Vitali Milman and Boaz Klartag, Tel Aviv University

2014 Gal Binyamini, Q-functions and the Infinitesimal Hilbert Sixteenth Problem, Sergei Yakovenko, The Weizmann Institute of Science

2015 Alon Nishry, Topics in the Value Distribution of Random Analytic Functions, Mikhail Sodin, Tel Aviv University

2015 Doron Puder, Formal words (elements of free groups), word maps, and their combinatorial and algebraic aspects, Nati Linial, The Hebrew University

2016 Omer Ben-Neria, The possible structure of the Mitchell order, Moti Gitik, Tel Aviv University

2016 Yoel Groman, Floer and Gromov Witten theory on open Manifolds, Jake Solomon, The Hebrew University

2017 Nir Lazarovich, Non-positively curved regular complexes, Micha Sageev, The Technion