Peretz Lavie

Peretz Lavie was born in 1949 in Petah Tikva

Lavie was born in Petah Tikva in 1949. His father, a career army officer, was killed when Lavie was a small child, and the family later moved to Zikhron Ya'akov. He attended school there and in Pardes Hanna and was a youth leader in Maccabi Hatzair.

He earned a bachelor's degree in statistics and psychology at Tel Aviv University. He completed a PhD in physiological psychology at the University of Florida, working in the sleep laboratory of Wilse B. Webb. He then did postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego.

In 1975 he joined the Technion and set up a sleep research laboratory, which grew into the Center for Sleep Medicine. The center helped create companies that make sleep testing equipment, including Itamar Medical. He served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1993 to 1999 and as a Technion vice president from 2001 to 2008.

Lavie worked to change public rules linked to sleep, such as cancelling the zero hour in primary schools. He persuaded the Israel Broadcasting Authority to run a silent channel during the first Gulf War. He also wrote books, including The Enchanted World of Sleep.

As Technion president from 2009, he formed an alliance with Cornell University that led to the Technion-Cornell Institute in 2012. He was succeeded by Uri Sivan. He is married to cell biologist Lena Lavie and has 3 children.