Scienceליאו קורי

Leo Corry

Leo Corry is an Israeli historian of mathematics who became president of the Open University of Israel in 2023.

born 1956History of modern mathematicsResearch on Hilbert and EinsteinPresidency of the Open University

Occupation: mathematician, historian of mathematics, historian, researcher
Education: Tel Aviv University

Leo Corry was born in 1956 in Santiago

Leo Corry was born in 1956 in Santiago, Chile. His Jewish family moved to Venezuela when he was a small child, and he grew up in Caracas.

He earned a first degree in mathematics from Simón Bolívar University in 1977 and moved to Israel that year. At Tel Aviv University he received a master's degree in mathematics in 1983 and a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science in 1990. His doctoral work dealt with the origins of category theory.

From 1979 to 1981 he served in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade. He was a member of Kibbutz Nirim for many years.

At Tel Aviv University he became a full professor at the Cohn Institute in 2007 and headed it from 2003 to 2009. He was dean of humanities from 2015 to 2020 and edited the journal Science in Context. His research covers modern algebra, number theory, Hilbert and Einstein, and he helped find documents on the priority dispute between them.

On 1 October 2023 he became president of the Open University. In 2024 he received the Whiteman Prize. He is married and lives in Ramat Gan.