Eshel Ben-Jacob: A unique individual in the science of collective phenomena

TL;DR

This paper celebrates Eshel Ben-Jacob's pioneering contributions to understanding collective behavior and self-organization in biological systems, highlighting his experimental work on bacterial colonies and his unifying scientific perspective.

Contribution

It provides a personal and scientific tribute to Eshel Ben-Jacob, emphasizing his role in advancing the concept of self-organization in collective phenomena.

Findings

Experimental evidence of self-organization in bacterial colonies

Recognition of Eshel's unifying approach to complex systems

Highlighting the importance of simplicity in complex phenomena

Abstract

Eshel Ben-Jacob, one of the co-organizers of this meeting on collective behavior and one of the pioneers in the field of collective behavior in biology, passed away suddenly just before we convened. This article presents a brief glimpse of Eshel's life-long path through science, seen from the perspective of a decades long collaboration on many disparate yet ultimately connected topics. The article attempts to convey how the concept of self-organization of complex interacting objects into higher order functional units, as evidenced so wonderfully by Eshel's experiments on bacterial colony formation, provides a unifying theme for the study of collective behavior. Our entire field will miss his unique ability to "let the complex become simple".