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Jacob Ziv

Jacob Ziv was an Israeli electrical engineer and information theorist who developed, with Abraham Lempel, the Lempel-Ziv algorithms for lossless data compression.

1931 to 2023Lempel-Ziv data compression algorithmsThe Ziv-Zakai boundInformation theory researchPresiding over Israel's Academy of Sciences

Born: 27 November 1931, Tiberias
Died: 25 March 2023
Occupation: engineer, computer scientist, pedagogue, university teacher
Education: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Founded: 1997)

Jacob Ziv was born in 1931 in Tiberias

Ziv was born in Tiberias on 27 November 1931 to a family that had come from Moscow. His father, Ben-Zion Ziv, was a teacher and school principal in Tiberias and later in Ra'anana. His older brother Yehuda Ziv was a geographer and linguist.

He attended the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 and a master's degree in 1957 in electrical engineering at the Technion. He completed his doctorate at MIT in 1962.

He enlisted at 16 at the start of the War of Independence and operated a mobile radar. From 1955 to 1959 he did communication systems research for the Ministry of Defense, and in 1962 he returned there as head of the Communications Division. From 1968 to 1970 he worked at Bell Laboratories.

He joined the Technion faculty in 1970 and became a full professor in 1972. He served as dean of electrical engineering and as vice president for academic affairs. In 1977 and 1978 he and Lempel presented their compression algorithms.

From 1985 he chaired the Planning and Grants Committee, and he later served as president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He married Shoshana, and they had 2 sons and 2 daughters. He died on 25 March 2023.

Milestones in Jacob Ziv's life

1931
Born in Tiberias.
1962
Completed his doctorate at MIT.
1969
Co-founded the computing company Techam.
1970
Joined the Technion faculty.
1973
Received the Israel Defense Prize.
1977
Presented the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm with Abraham Lempel.
1993
Received the Israel Prize for exact sciences.
1995
Received the IEEE Hamming Medal and the Marconi Prize.
2021
Received the IEEE Medal of Honor.
2023
Died.

Jacob Ziv served in the military

He enlisted at 16 at the start of the War of Independence, trained as a radar technician and operated a mobile radar. He later served in the reserves in the Intelligence Directorate's technology unit, where he won the Israel Defense Prize.