Noam Soker
Charles Wolfson Academic Chair, Department of Physics, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Date and place of birth: September 2nd, 1958. Israel
Citizenship: Israel
Status: Married + 3
Academic degrees:
- 1975-1977, Department of Mathematics and Physics, Oranim, University of Haifa – Beginning of Bachelor Degree in Physics
- 1980-1982, Department of Physics, Technion – Finishing Bachelor in Physics, Awarded: 4th May 1983 – Summa Cum Laude
- 1982-1986, Department of Physics, Technion – Doctoral studies, Awarded: 20th April 1986
Academic positions:
- 2016- Head of Physics Program, Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT)
- 2009 – 2015 Dean, Faculty of physics, Technion
- 2003 – Department of Physics, Technion (Full Professor)
- 1998 – 2003, Oranim – University of Haifa, Science Education Department (Full Professor)
- 1994 – 1998, Chair, Mathematics-Physics program, Oranim – University of Haifa
- 1994 – 1998, Oranim – University of Haifa, Science Education Department (Associated Professor)
- 1992 – 1994 , Oranim – University of Haifa, Science Education Department (Senior Lecturer)
- 1989 – 1992, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University (Postdoc)
- 1986 – 1989, Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (Postdoc)
Research interest (see also Publications):
- Hot gas in galaxy clusters: Heating the intra-cluster medium with jets launched from super-massive black holes, and feeding the black hole with cold gas. Specific contributions: the cold feedback mechanism (with Fabio Pizzolato); inflation of `fat bubbles’ (with Assaf Sternberg; Avishai Gilkis; Michael Refaelovich; Shlomi Hillel); Magnetic fields in clusters (with Craig Sarazin).
- The death of massive stars: Core collapse supernovae: Specific contributions: the jittering-jet model for explosion (with Oded Papish; Avishai Gilkis).
- Type Ia supernovae. Specific contributions: The core-degenerate model (with Amit Kashi; Marjan Ilkov; Danny Tsebrenko; Naveh Levanon).
- The death of solar-like stars: Planetary nebulae, and the destruction of planets. Specific contributions: shaping planetary nebulae by stellar companions and the influence of planets on stellar evolution; X-ray emission from planetary nebulae (with Joel Kastner; Ehud Behar; Muhammad Akashi); Explaining some evolved stars with planets around them (with Ealeal Bear).
- Intermediate – Luminosity Optical Transients (ILOTs): Eruptive stars in the gas between Novae and Supernovae (with Amit Kashi; Efrat Sabach; Liron Mcley). Specific contributions: Modeling ILOT eruptions by violent mass transfer from an unstable star to a main sequence companion. Modeling the outburst of V838 Monocerotis as merger of two main-sequence stars (with Romuald Tylenda). The process is termed high-accretion powered ILOTs (the HAPI model)
- Eta Carinae: The formation of the nebula around one of the most massive binary systems in the galaxy, and the strange behavior of the binary system. Specific contributions: The role of mass transfer in the present behavior of the system and during the Great Eruption of 1837-1856 (with Amit Kashi).
- The common envelope: The evolution of one star inside the envelope of another star. Specific contributions: Planets inside the envelope (with Mario Livio). Companion-core merger.
- The Grazing Envelope Evolution (GEE): A spiral-in process by which a stellar companion graze the envelope of a giant star while both the orbital separation and the giant radius shrink simultaneously, and a close binary system is formed. The binary system might be viewed as evolving in a constant state of `just entering a common envelope phase’. This is an evolutionary channel parallel to the common envelope one. I suggested the GEE in 2014.