David Horn

Timeline

1. 1961–1965

   Physics degrees in Israel

   At the Technion, he earns a BSc in 1961 and an MSc in 1962. He completes a PhD at Hebrew University in 1965 under advisor Yuval Ne'eman.

2. 1962–1968

   Joining Tel Aviv University

   He joins Tel Aviv University as an assistant in 1962, becomes a lecturer in 1965, a senior lecturer in 1967, and an associate professor in 1968.

3. 1967

   Finite-energy sum rules

   Together with Richard Dolen and Christoph Schmid, he discovers the finite-energy sum rules in 1967; the work becomes known as Dolen-Horn-Schmid duality.

4. 1971–2007

   The Jaupart Chair

   He becomes professor of physics at Tel Aviv University in 1971 and holds the Edouard and Francoise Jaupart Chair of Theoretical Physics of Particles and Fields from 1974 to 2007.

5. 1980–1995

   University leadership and APS honors

   At Tel Aviv University, he serves as vice rector in 1980–1983, becomes an American Physical Society Fellow in 1985, heads the School of Physics in 1986–1989, and becomes dean in 1990–1995.

6. 1990–2001

   From theory to clustering

   He focuses on high-energy physics theory until 1990, then shifts to neural computation and machine learning. In 2001, he publishes Support Vector Clustering with Asa Ben-Hur, Hava Siegelmann, and Vladimir Vapnik; the method maps data with a Gaussian kernel into a high-dimensional feature space and searches for a minimal enclosing sphere. With Assaf Gottlieb, he publishes The Method of Quantum Clustering in 2001, linking potential minima to cluster centers.

7. 2005

   Unsupervised language learning

   He develops an unsupervised natural-language learning project with Zach Solan, Eytan Ruppin, and Shimon Edelman in 2005.

8. Since 2005

   Professor emeritus at Tel Aviv

   He is professor emeritus in Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy, a role he takes up in 2005.