Rubinstein Reuven

Prof. Rubinstein was born on the 25 of August 1938 in Lithuania. He started his academic education there and in 1960 he finished his Master’s degree Cum Laude in Electrical Engineering at the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. He continued his education in Latvia, at the Rigas Polytechnic Institute, where he completed his PhD in Operations Research in 1969. Reuven immigrated to Israel in 1973 and started his academic career at the Industrial Engineering and Management faculty at the Technion. In 1978 he was appointed Associate Professor and in 1992 became Full Professor.

Reuven was a member of several societies including the Operations Research Society of Israel and the American Operations Research Society. During his sabbatical years he was a visiting professor at many universities and research centers around the world, among them University of Illinois, Urbana, Harvard University, Stanford University, IBM Research Center, Bell Laboratories, NJ, NEC, and the Institute of Statistical Math., Japan.

Reuven was an international expert in stochastic systems, applied probability, the Monte Carlo methods and he was the developer of the cross-entropy method. His 1981 book “Simulation and the Monte Carlo Methods” is the most quoted book in the world on this topic. On his 70th birthday, an international convention about simulations was held in his honor in Denmark. Also, the Annals of Operation Research Journal dedicated a special issue in his honor that same year.

In addition to Reuven’s academic contribution to the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, he made financial contributions. Reuven donated to the renovation of the seminar room in the Bloomfield building and alongside his wife he established the Reuven Rubinstein Foundation which gives grants to advanced students in the faculty in order to give them the opportunity to participate in international conventions.

Reuven was married to Dr. Rina Rubinstein and fathered two children. He died in December, 2012. His wisdom and dedication are remembered by all and missed by his colleague, students, and friends.