Paul Singer 1934-2005
Paul Singer, the theoretical particle physicist and influential advocate for science, died in February 2005 after a short fight with cancer.
Paul was born in 1934 in Roman, Romania, and emigrated to Israel after graduating from high school. He served in the Israeli army while completing his BSc at the Technion in Haifa, where he also gained his DSc in 1961, under Nathan Rosen (of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paper). Paul then went to the US, before returning to the Technion in 1964. He became a professor in 1969, and held the Charles Wolfson chair from 1990 until 2002, when he retired.
Paul's research included various decays of hadrons. With Laurie Brown he suggested in 1964 a light scalar state, the "Brown-Singer particle", now the Σ. His collaboration with Svjetlana Fajfer yielded 24 papers on D and B decays. In his most cited 1987 paper, with Nilendra Deshpande, Gad Eilam, Peter Lo and Josip Trampetic, Paul's deep knowledge of radiative K decays (e.g. in his three papers with Moshe Moshe) led to the use of radiative B decays for predicting the mass of the top quark. Paul was proud of this prediction when top was discovered in 1994.
As vice-president for academic development (1976-1980) and senior vice-president (1990-1994), Paul led the institute to new heights in research and helped absorb many students and scientists from the former Soviet Union. His most influential position was as chair of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) from 1995 to 2000. Under his leadership, it became the largest contributor to basic research in Israel. As deputy chairman of the Israeli Directorate of European Frameworks (1997-2005) he advanced Israel's stature in the EU.
Paul is survived by his wife Yocheved and their son Ido. We miss a friend, collaborator and a person of integrity and honesty, and we miss his wit and wisdom.
Eilam Gad, Michael Gronau and Moshe Moshe, the Technion, Haifa.