Naftali "Tali" Tishby (Hebrew: נפתלי תשבי; 28 December 1952 – 9 August 2021) was a professor of computer science and computational neuroscientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was born and died in Jerusalem, Israel. He attended the Hebrew University Secondary School and pursued his education at Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, completing his thesis, "Reduced Dynamical Description: An Information Theoretic Approach", in 1985. His work covered computer science, mathematics, and neurosciences, with institutional affiliations including MIT, Bell Labs, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His honors included the Israel Defense Prize and the Landau Prize in Computer Science.
Early life and education
Tishby was born in 1952, and his father Yeshaya Tishby was a researcher of Kabbalah and Jewish thought. In 1971 he graduated the Hebrew University Secondary School, joined the academic Atuda in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and served in the IDF until 1980, receiving the Israel Defense Prize that year.
In 1974 he graduated B.Sc. cum laude in Mathematics in Physics from the Hebrew University. In 1980 he graduated M.Sc. cum laude in Theoretical Physics at Tel Aviv University, with an M.Sc. thesis topic of "Spallation nuclear reactions in the galactic cosmic rays". In 1985 he completed Ph.D. studies in the Hebrew University, publishing the thesis "Reduced Dynamical Description: An Information Theoretic Approach".[1] He did his post-doctoral studies at MIT from 1985 to 1986.
Career
From 1986 until 1991, he worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. In 1992, he became a senior lecturer in the Computer Science faculty at the Hebrew University, becoming an associate professor in 1997. He was among the founders of the Hebrew University's Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, and the Sudarsky Center for Computational Biology. In 1998, he founded and chaired the computer engineering program. His research focused on the mathematical and statistical theory of learning and biological adaptation.
Personal life and death
Tishby was married and had four children. Tishby died on 9 August 2021 at the age of 68.[2]
External links
External links include an article by Uri Nitzan (אורי ניצן) titled "ללמד את המחשב להבחין בין עיקר לטפל, על פי המודל היעיל של החיידק והזבוב", published on 29 April 2003.
