Jacob David Bekenstein was a transformative theoretical physicist whose pioneering work fundamentally reshaped our understanding of black holes and gravity. Born in Mexico City in 1947 he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1972 under the guidance of the renowned John A. Wheeler who popularized the term black hole. After completing his doctorate Bekenstein conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin before immigrating to Israel in 1974 where he joined Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. He rose to become a full professor in 1978 and head of the astrophysics department in 1983 before moving to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990 where he served as the Michael Polak Professor of Theoretical Physics and became head of the theoretical physics department in 1993.
Bekenstein's most revolutionary contribution was his groundbreaking realization that black holes possess entropy proportional to the area of their event horizon a discovery he made while still a graduate student at Princeton. This seminal insight initially met with skepticism even from Stephen Hawking who attempted to disprove it ultimately led to the development of black hole thermodynamics a field that fundamentally transformed theoretical physics. His work established that black holes have temperature and carry entropy creating a profound connection between quantum mechanics general relativity and thermodynamics that had previously been thought impossible. Bekenstein's discovery that black holes satisfy the Second Law of Thermodynamics sparked a paradigm shift that became the foundation for modern research in quantum gravity and string theory with his equations now considered cornerstones of theoretical physics.
The enduring impact of Bekenstein's work is evident in its continued influence across multiple disciplines of physics from cosmology to quantum information theory. He was widely recognized for his contributions receiving the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics in 2012 and the American Physical Society's Einstein Prize in 2015 both considered precursors to the Nobel Prize. As a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1997 Bekenstein played a significant role in shaping scientific discourse in Israel and internationally. Though he passed away unexpectedly in 2015 his theoretical framework continues to guide research in quantum gravity with contemporary physicists building upon his insights to explore the fundamental nature of space time and information in the universe.
