Pæan to Zohar Manna

Zohar, whose name in Hebrew means “illumination,” was born in early 1939 c.e. and grew up in Haifa, Israel. This volume is offered in tribute to Zohar – and in celebration of his 64th birthday. Two academic symposia were held to mark this event: a one-day symposium, held in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 16, 2003, and a week-long symposium, held in Taormina, Sicily, from June 29 to July 4, which gave rise to this volume. Zohar received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, in Mathematics, from the Technion in Haifa (in 1962 and 1965, respectively). He also served as a scientific programmer in the Israel Defense Forces from 1962 to 1964. He continued his graduate studies in Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, under the guidance of Robert W Floyd and Alan J. Perlis, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1968. Going backwards, we find that his advisor, Alan J. Perlis, was a student of Philip Franklin, who was a student of Oswald Veblen, who was a student of Eliakim Hastings Moore, who was a student of Hubert Anson Newton, who was a student of Michel Chasles, who was a student of Siméon-Denis Poisson, who was a student of Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who was an unofficial student of Leonhard Euler, who was a student of Johann Bernoulli, who was a student of his brother, Jacob Bernoulli, who was an autodidact. Bob Floyd did his undergraduate work in Chicago, but did not have a doctorate. Zohar went on to be an assistant professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, from 1968 to 1972, was on the faculty of the Weizmann Institute, in Rehovot, Israel, during the years 1972–1995, and has been on the faculty of Stanford University as a full professor since 1978. Zohar and his wife, Nitza, raised four children, travelling regularly from continent to continent.