A Feldenkrais Lesson for the Beginner Scientist: Professor Dorit Aharonov at TEDxJaffa

Professor Dorit Aharonov will talk about how principles she had learned in her practice of body-mind methods, and the Feldenkrais method in particular, can be useful in an entirely different realm: doing scientific and mathematical research. By combining body study and movement with her own experience in scientific research, she suggests ways to overcome an obstacle with less force.

Dorit was born in Washington D.C and grew up in Haifa, Israel. She did her BSc in Physics and Mathematics summa cum laude in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she continued to do her PhD (after a break of one year at the Weizmann Institute), jointly in the Computer science and Physics departments.

In her PhD she discovered ways to make quantum computers noise tolerant. After a one year postdoc in the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton and one year in UC Berkeley, she joined the Hebrew University computer science department where she is now a full professor, and together with her group of students studies quantum computational processes. More generally, she is fascinated by mathematical beauty and its connection to the physical world.

She received several awards for her research work. Her other passion is body-mind processes, and in particular, martial arts. For the past 18 years she has been practicing and studying Tai-Chi, Yoga and Kung-Fu, and in addition has recently become a teacher in the Feldenkrais method of self improvement and awareness through movement. Other interests of hers include human rights, art, literature, being outdoors, hiking, inspiring human stories and human potential in general.