Daniel ben-Avraham

Biography

Daniel ben-Avraham was born in Santa-Fe, Argentina, and grew up in Israel, where he completed all his academic degrees in Physics. In 1985 he went for a postdoc at Boston University, with Prof. Sid Redner. He has been teaching and researching at Clarkson University since 1987.

Apart from his academic duties, Prof. ben-Avraham is active in the popularization and dissemination of physics and science to the wider public. He is the founder and organizer of the Science Café (Potsdam and Canton, NY, since 2008), teaches regularly at SOAR – a continuing education venue for the elderly – and is a frequent guest speaker to high school classes in the area.

Education Background

Physics Ph.D. - 1985 Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Physics M.Sc. - 1982 Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Physics B.Sc. - 1980 Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Experience

Professor Physics Department, Clarkson University, 2003-present
Associate Professor Department of Physics, Clarkson University, 1995
Assistant Professor Department of Physics, Clarkson University, 1987
Professor (courtesy appt) Department of Math, Clarkson University, 2008-present
Visiting Research Associate Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1995-1996, 2007
Visiting Professor IWR, Heidelberg, Germany, 1990-1992
Postdoctoral Research Associate EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany, 1990
Visiting Research Associate CNLS, Los Alamos, 1990, 2003, 2007
Visiting Scholar Boston University, 1987-1990
Postdoctoral Research Associate Boston University, 1985-1987
R&D Engineer El-Op (Electro-optical industry), Israel, 1984

Courses Taught

PH663 - Electromagnetism - I
PH669 - Quantum Physics - I
PH380/580 - Electromagnetic Theory I & II
PH331/581 - Quantum Mechanics - I
PH121 - Freshmen Seminars
EV322-ADK - ADK semester: Sense of Place

Research Interests

Complex Networks: Structural properties of networks, Percolation phase transition (how networks react to dilution of their nodes and/or links); Dynamical processes (diffusion, epidemics and information propagation models, etc.)
Statistical Physics: Anomalous diffusion in disordered media (fractals, percolation clusters, etc.); Kinetics of diffusion-limited reaction models – scaling and exact approaches; Self Avoiding Walks; Nonequilibrium dynamics
Biophysics: Motility and flexibility of proteins (Normal Modes); Simplified potential energy field models; Universal features of the vibrational spectrum of globular proteins

Awards

Leon LeBeau SOARing Educator Award, 2018
Outstanding Referee, American Physical Society, 2008
Fellow, American Physical Society, 2004

Publications

Slow Normal Modes of Proteins are Accurately Reproduced across Different Platforms, H. Na, D. ben-Avraham, and M. M. Tirion, Physical Biology 16, 016003 (2019).
Ordering Statistics of Four Random Walkers on a Line,  B. Helenbrook and D. ben-Avraham, Phys. Rev. E 97, 052105 (2018).
PDB-NMA of a Small Homodimer Reproduces Distinct Experimental Motility Asymmetry, M. M. Tirion and D. ben-Avraham, Physical Biology 15, 026004 (2018).  
Modeling Spatial Social Complex Networks for Dynamical Processes, S. Wickramasinghe, O. Onyerikwu, J. Sun, and D. ben-Avraham, Complexity 2018, 1428719 (2018).
Universality of Vibrational Spectra of Globular Proteins,  H. Na, G. Song, and D. ben-Avraham, Phys. Biol. 13, 016008 (2016).
Analytical Results for the Distribution of Shortest Path Lengths in Random Networks, E. Katzav, M. Nitzan, D. ben-Avraham, P. L. Krapivsky, R. Kühn, N. Ross, and O. Biham, Eur. Phys. Lett. 111, 26006 (2015).
Atomic Torsional Modal Analysis for High-Resolution Proteins, M. M. Tirion and D. ben-Avraham, Phys. Rev. E 91, 032712 (2015).  
Growing Networks with Super-Joiners,  A. Jabr-Hamdan, J. Sun, and D. ben-Avraham, Phys. Rev. E 90, 052812 (2014).
Spatially Distributed Social Complex Networks,  G. F. Frasco, J. Sun, H. D. Rozenfeld, and D. ben-Avraham, Phys. Rev. X 4, 011008 (2014).  
Entropy Production in Nonequilibrium Steady States: A Different Approach and an Exactly Solvable Canonical Model, D. ben-Avraham, S. Dorosz, and M. Pleimling, Phys. Rev. E 84, 011115 (2011).
Exact Solution of the Nonconsensus Model on the Line, Daniel ben-Avraham, Physical Review E, 83, 050101(R), link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/Phys.RevE.83.050101 (2011)
Realm of Validity of the Crooks Relation, D. ben-Avraham, S. Dorosz, M. Pleimling, Physical Review E, 83, 041129, pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v83/i4/e041129 (2011)
Small-scale behavior in deterministic reaction models, D. ben-Avraham, P. Paolo, Journal of Physics A, 43, 405002 (2010)
Greedy connectivity of geographically embedded graphs, Sun, J., D. Ben-Avraham, Physical Review E, 82, 016109, pre.aps.org/absract/PRE/v82/i1/e016109 (2010)

Past Publications:

On the Google-Fame of Scientists and other Populations, James P. Bagrow and Daniel ben-Avraham, Conference Proceedings: 8th Granada Seminar on Computational and Statistical Physics, "Modeling Cooperative Behavior in the Social Sciences," Granada, Spain, February 7-11, 2005. phys/0504034, pdf
What is Special about Diffusion in Scale-Free Networks? E. Bollt and D. ben-Avraham, New J. Phys. 7, 26 (2005) open access. cond-mat/0409465, pdf
On the Relation between One-Species Diffusion-Limited Coalescence and Annihilation in One Dimension, E. Brunet and D. ben-Avraham, J. Phys. A 38, 3247-3252 (2005). cond-mat/0412745, pdf
First Passage Properties of the Erdös-Rényi Random Graph, V. Sood, S. Redner, and D. ben-Avraham, J. Phys. A 38, 109-123 (2005). cond-mat/0410309, pdf
A Generalization of both the Method of Images and of the Classical Integral Transforms, A. S. Fokas and D. ben-Avraham, in Advances in Scattering and Biomedical Engineering, D. I. Fotiadis and C. V. Massalas, eds., pp. 260-276 (World Scientific, New Jersey 2004). cond-mat/0307020, pdf
Tomography and Stability of Complex Networks, T. Kalisky, R. Cohen, D. ben-Avraham, and S. Havlin, Lect. Notes Phys. 650, 3-34 (2004). Conference Proceedings: "Networks: Structure, Dynamics, and Function," Santa-Fe, NM, May 12-16, 2003.

Books:

Diffusion and Reactions in Fractals and Disordered Systems,  D. ben-Avraham and S. Havlin, (Cambridge University Press, 2000; Paperback, 2005).  
Fractals and Multifractals, in “Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science,” D. ben-Avraham and S. Havlin, Section eds., (Springer, 2009).