Asher Peres

Asher Peres was born in 1934 in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne

Asher Peres was born Aristide Pressman in 1934 in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, France. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Lviv, and his father, an electrical engineer, worked laying power lines. During World War II his father joined the underground, while Asher and his mother moved from village to village.

In 1949 he immigrated to Israel with his family aboard the Negbah and changed his name to Asher Peres. He attended Kalai high school in Givatayim. In 1952 he began mechanical engineering studies at the Technion on his father's advice, and in 1959 he earned a doctorate in physics there under Nathan Rosen.

He joined the Technion faculty after his studies and spent most of his career there. He became full professor in 1967 and distinguished professor in 1988, and served as dean of physics and of graduate studies. His work covered general relativity, quantum chaos, quantum foundations and quantum cryptography, including quantum teleportation and the Peres-Horodecki criterion.

He wrote the textbook Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods. In 2004 he received the Rothschild Prize in physics. He died in Haifa in 2005 and was married to Aviva, with whom he had 2 daughters.