Asher Peres - Biography

Asher Peres (January 30, 1934 - January 1, 2005) was an Israeli physicist, considered a pioneer in quantum information theory. According to his autobiography, he was born in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne in France, where his father, a Polish electrical engineer, had found work laying down power lines. Peres was given the name Aristide at birth, since the name his parents wanted to choose, Asher, the name of his maternal grandfather, was not on a list of permissible names. When Peres went to live in Israel, he changed his first name to Asher and his family name from Pressman to Peres.

Peres obtained his Ph.D. in 1959 at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology under Nathan Rosen. Peres spent most of his academic career at Technion, where in 1988 he was appointed distinguished professor of physics.

Peres is well-known for his work relating quantum mechanics and information theory, an approach which is extensively used in his textbook referenced below. Among other things, he helped to develop the Peres-Horodecki criterion for quantum entanglement as well as the concept of quantum teleportation.

He died in Haifa, Israel.

• Asher Peres, Quantum Theory, Concepts and Methods, Kluwer, 1993; ISBN 0-7923-2549-4.

External links

• A. Peres, I am the cat who walks by himself, Foundations of Physics, 36 1 (2006) (Autobiography, published 2004).
• List of publications Foundations of Physics, 36 157-173 (2006).
• N. Lindner, P. Scudo and D. Terno: Asher Peres, 1934-2005 (obituary by his students).
• L. Peres Hari: Asher Peres, 1943-2005 (obituary by his daughter).
• "Asher Peres", a 5 January 2005 weblog entry by Michael Nielsen