Bernie Schiff

1931 - 1999

The Applied Mathematics Department of the Tel-Aviv University lost in December 1999 one of its veterans, Bernie Schiff. He joined as a senior member since October 1966, a time when the Department was small but its people were in the middle of the struggle to make the Department into a strong research and high-level teaching center in mathematics in general and in applied mathematics in particular, a field which was growing tremendously at that time, due to the advent of the modern computers and their use in solving theoretical and practical problems.

With a solid education in both mathematics and physics from the Imperial College, London University, where he received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mid-fifties, Bernie accumulated a wide experience in dealing with difficult problems and computing their solutions on digital computers. After finishing his studies, he went to work for four years in industry. Then, moving to Israel, he worked for more than eight years in the Applied Math. Dept. of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovoth. Finally, he switched to Tel-Aviv University, but continued to work on various projects with people from the Weizmann Institute.

Due to the theoretical knowledge and practical experience he brought with him, Bernie was an important addition to the Dept. of Applied Math. of Tel-Aviv University, broadening the spectrum of research topics offered to graduate students in Applied Math. and strengthening the numerical and computational potential of the entire group, at a time when the mathematicians all over the world were reshaping both numerical analysis and computational methods beyond recognition. Moreover, Bernie brought with him another very important asset in an educational environment, he was an excellent teacher, able to convey to his students not only the relevant material they needed for their future studies, but also his devotion to the work he did and his versatility in handling the analytical aspects of a problem, together with its practical sides.

During his association with the Dept. of Mathematical Sciences and afterwards the School of Mathematics for more than thirty years, Bernie's research and teaching efforts were very successful, with results that speak for themselves. Beside continuing to work on projects concerning the numerical study of transition states and fine structure of Helium, Lithium and other elements, started in his first years at the Weizmann Institute under the leadership of C. L. Pekeris,  Bernie entered a totally different field of research, the use of finite elements in solving elliptic and hyperbolic problems involving singularities. One of the techniques used by Bernie was that of building "superelements" in order to increase accuracy, e.g. in calculating cutoff frequencies for various waveguides. Using this technique as well as others, Bernie managed to obtain new results on his own and also together with students he supervised, as well as in collaboration with J.R.Whiteman, one of the recognized leaders in the field.

Although Bernie spent a lot of his time in research activity, that consisted not only in publishing papers, but also in attending scientific meeting, where he explained to others what he deed and exchanged ideas with people working on similar problems, he did not neglect his classes, some for undergraduates and some for graduate students. He spent on this type of activity another big chunk of his time, preparing his lectures minutiously and giving much attention to every detail, even if the course was a very elementary one. This explains why his students were so impressed with the way he taught and why he was awarded the Dean's Prize for Outstanding Teacher in 1975. Thus, Bernie had his hands full with research at the Tel-Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute, as well as teaching students not only at Tel-Aviv University but also at some Colleges in the Tel-Aviv area. The picture, however, would not be complete without mentioning that all this widespread activity, demanding huge amounts of time and energy, was performed by Bernie while he raised a nice family blessed with five lovely boys and also fulfilled his military reserves duties and his obligations resulting from being a deeply religious person.

It is difficult to lose somebody whom one meets almost every day and who departs all of a sudden, not just for a month or a year but forever, like Bernie. It is even more difficult, when the departed one is somebody you knew personally for years and years and shared with him important activities for the benefit of the community you live in and work with.

We are indeed very sorry for losing Bernie Schiff, a talented researcher, a highly gifted teacher and a wonderful person. Let his memory be with us forever.