Professor Amikam Aharoni was one of the earliest members of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Electronics Department (precursor of the Department of Physics of Complex Systems). He first joined the department in 1953 as an electronics experimentalist and then again as an academic staff member in 1959.
Aharoni was born in Safed, Israel in 1929, fought and was wounded in the Israel War of Independence. He subsequently studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received the MSc degree in Physics in 1953 followed by a PhD in Physics in 1957 awarded for research performed at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Although he started as an experimentalist, Aharoni’s main scientific activity was as a theoretician in the area of electro-magnetism and magnetic materials, with emphasis on micromagnetism, where he made many seminal contributions during his career. Indeed, he became a leading world authority. He collaborated with many international scientists in academia and industry, wrote about 200 scientific articles, mostly as principal author, and a book “Introduction to the Theory of Ferromagnetism”. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and was Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Magnetics Society.
Aharoni was well-versed in the Bible and traditions of Israel, and over many years amassed a collection of ancient coins, which he proudly exhibited.
He married in 1955 and he and his wife Henia had three sons, Rami, Dan and Gad, and nine grandchildren.