Scienceבנימין וייס

Benjamin Weiss

Benjamin Weiss is an American-Israeli mathematician known for his work in ergodic theory, topological dynamics, probability and game theory, and a 2026 Israel Prize laureate.

born 1941Ergodic theory and topological dynamicsIntroducing Markov partitionsThe road coloring problemSofic groups

Occupation: mathematician
Education: Princeton University

Benjamin Weiss was born in 1941 in New York City

Benjamin Weiss was born in 1941 in New York City. His father was the rabbi and professor Avraham Weiss, and his mother was Pnina, née Kramer.

In 1962 he earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree at Yeshiva University. He completed his doctorate at Princeton in 1965 under William Feller.

From 1965 to 1967 he worked at IBM Research. In 1967 he joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has held the Miriam and Julius Vinik Chair in Mathematics since 1990, becoming emeritus in 2009. He also held visiting posts at Stanford and MSRI.

He has published over 180 papers. With Roy Adler he introduced Markov partitions and posed the road coloring problem, and with Don Ornstein he developed the ergodic theory of amenable groups. He also worked on mean dimension with Elon Lindenstrauss, one of his doctoral students.

His honors include the Rothschild Prize in 2006 and the Israel Prize in 2026. He lives in Jerusalem.

Benjamin Weiss's life in 8 milestones

1941
Born in New York City.
1962
Earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Yeshiva University.
1965
Received his doctorate from Princeton.
1967
Joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1974
Gave an invited address at the International Congress of Mathematicians.
2000
Elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
2006
Received the Rothschild Prize in Mathematics.
2026
Received the Israel Prize in mathematics and computer science.