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Orly Shenker

Orly Shenker is an Israeli philosopher of physics and of mind and a professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

born 1960Flat physicalismResearch on Maxwell's demonPhilosophy of statistical mechanics

Occupation: philosopher
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Cambridge

Orly Shenker was born in 1960

Orly Ruth Shenker was born in 1960. She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997.

She did postdoctoral research at Cambridge, Oxford, the Hebrew University and the University of Haifa. In 2000 she became a lecturer at the London School of Economics. She then taught at the College of Management Academic Studies, the Open University of Israel and the University of Haifa, and joined the Hebrew University in 2010.

Her research covers Maxwell's demon, entropy and fractal geometry, through a view she calls flat physicalism. With Meir Hemmo she wrote The Road to Maxwell's Demon in 2012. She led the Edelstein Centre for History and Philosophy of Science from 2013 until 2021 and holds the Eleanor Roosevelt Chair.

She is founding president of The Pond, a network of philosophy of science around the Mediterranean. She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2020.