Scienceמנחם מגידור

Menachem Magidor

Menachem Magidor is an Israeli mathematician working in set theory and mathematical logic, who served as president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1997 to 2009.

born 1946Research in set theoryMartin's maximumPresidency of the Hebrew University

Born: 24 January 1946, Petah Tikva
Occupation: mathematician
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Founded: Mandel Scholion Center (2012)

Menachem Magidor was born in 1946 in Petah Tikva

Magidor was born in Petah Tikva on January 24, 1946, the only child of Sara and Yishai Korotnitzky. He grew up in Netanya and in Moshav Givat Shapira. He studied at Tchernichovsky High School and skipped 2 grades.

He began studying mathematics at the Hebrew University at 16. He served in the Israeli Navy. In 1973 he earned his PhD there under Azriel Lévy, with a thesis on supercompact cardinals.

His research developed the forcing method and produced consistency results on singular cardinals. With Matthew Foreman and Saharon Shelah he formulated Martin's maximum and proved its consistency. He became a professor in 1982 and was dean of mathematics and natural sciences from 1992 to 1996.

He led the Hebrew University from 1997 to 2009 and chaired the President's committee on the structure of government in 2005 and 2006. During the 2007 student strike he opposed the protest, and senior faculty sought to remove him. In 2008 he became chair of the committee of university heads.

He was president of the Association for Symbolic Logic from 1996 to 1998 and of the DLMPST from 2016 to 2019. His daughter is the philosopher Ofra Magidor.