Baruch Barzel (; March 19, 1976) is an

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i physicist and applied mathematician at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

, a member of the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center and of the Bar-Ilan

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

Institute. His main research areas are

statistical physics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applicati ...

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

nonlinear dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathem ...

and

network science Network science is an academic field which studies complex networks such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, Cognitive network, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks, considering distinct eleme ...

. In 2013 he introduced the concept of universality in the dynamics of complex networks, showing that complex systems from different domains condense into discrete forms, or

universality class In statistical mechanics, a universality class is a collection of mathematical models which share a single scale-invariant limit under the process of renormalization group flow. While the models within a class may differ dramatically at finite sc ...

es, of dynamic behavior. In the following years, Barzel and colleagues developed a theoretical framework to predict the observed behavior of complex networked systems: their patterns of information flow; the timescales of their signal propagation; their resilience against failures and disruptions and their recoverability. During the COVID-19 Pandemi
Barzel's lab
published the alternating quarantine strategy to mitigate the spread of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

alongside continuous socioeconomic activity. The strategy was implemented by several agencies in Israel and around the world.

Academic career

Barzel completed his Ph.D. in physics at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

as
Hoffman Fellow
He then pursued his postdoctoral training at the Center for Complex Network Research at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

and at the Channing Division of Network Medicine,

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. Barzel is a recipient of the Racah prize (2007) and the Krill prize of the

Wolf Foundation The Wolf Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization in Israel established in 1975 by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born Jewish Cuban inventor and former Cuban ambassador to Israel. Ricardo Wolf Ricardo Wolf, the founder of the Wolf Found ...

(2019). Barzel is also an active public lecturer on science and on Judaism, and presents a weekly corner on Jewish thought on

Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation is the national broadcaster of Israel. It carries the blanket branding Kan in Hebrew () and Makan in Arabic (). Its news division, Kan News, is the third biggest brand in Israeli newscasting, after Ha ...

. Dr. Barzel's research focuses on the dynamic behavior of complex networks, uncovering universal principles that govern the dynamics of diverse systems, such as disease spreading, gene regulatory networks, protein interactions or

population dynamics Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems. Population dynamics is a branch of mathematical biology, and uses mathematical techniques such as differenti ...

Selected publications

* * * * * *J. Gao, B. Barzel and A.-L. Barabási,
Universal resilience patterns in complex networks
, ''Nature'' 530, 307 (2016) *U. Harush and B. Barzel,
Dynamic patterns of information flow in complex networks
, ''Nature Communications'' 8, 2181 (2017) *C. Hens, U. Harush, S. Haber, R. Cohen and B. Barzel,
Spatiotemporal signal propagation in complex networks
, ''Nature Physics'' (2019) *D. Meidan, N. Schulmann, R. Cohen, S. Haber, E. Yaniv, R. Sarid and B. Barzel
Alternating quarantine for sustainable epidemic mitigation
''Nature Communications'' 12, 220 (2021). *H. Sanhedrai, J. Gao, A. Bashan, M. Schwartz, S. Havlin and B. Barzel
Reviving a failed network through microscopic interventions
''Nature Physics'' 18, 338 (2022). *C. Meena, C. Hens, S. Acharyya, S. Haber, S. Boccaletti and B. Barzel
Emergent stability in complex network dynamics
''Nature Physics'' (2023).

Public lectures and media coverage

*Universal resilience patterns in complex networks i

(Hebrew) *Bar-Ilan Nitzotzot meeting 2015 (Hebrew)
Connecting the world in six steps
*Interview o
Channel 20
2019 (Hebrew)
Network Earth
2019 *Universality in

network dynamics Network dynamics is a research field for the study of networks whose status changes in time. The dynamics may refer to the structure of connections of the units of a network, to the collective internal state of the network, or both. The networked ...

i
2Physics
*Predicting the tipping point of complex systems i
The Munich eye
*A new framework to predict spatiotemporal signal propagation in complex networks i

*Profile article on the Complex Network Dynamics lab i
Makor Rishon
(Hebrew) *Krav Mada radio lecture series i
Galei Zahal
(Hebrew) *Israeli experts propose radical post-corona exit strategy i
Israel21
*An alternative quarantine strategy i
El Economista
*A well-calculated proposal: mathematical proposal to fight COVID-19 and get out of the economic blockade i
Aula Magna
Mor
here

References

External links

Professional WebsiteResearch Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barzel, Baruch Israeli physicists Israeli mathematicians Complex systems scientists 1976 births Living people Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Probability theorists Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University