Obituary for Arren Bar-Even

With great sadness, we have to announce the sudden, untimely and tragic death of our colleague Arren Bar-Even who passed away last week at the age of 40.

Ron Milo, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, the Weizmann Institute of Science

In this time of terrible loss to our community of a rare genius and an extraordinary man I want to
also reflect on a different and unorthodox angle, which I think in the spirit of Arren he might not
agree with, but would respect.
We can only speculate on what amazing further revelations and achievements Arren would have
brought to the world with his ardent students and collaborators. It is a loss our community will have
to work much harder to try to only partially remedy. One thought that might help us is that in other
times in history the genius and contributions Arren gave to the world in his far-too-short life could
have been missed.
Anyone who spent a few minutes with Arren knows he had an unparalleled sharp personality (and
mind). While I haven’t ever heard them saying anything, I can imagine hosting him and his lab at the
Max Planck was not always easy. Already as a master student he would clearly show and declare that
he has no special (and often any) respect to what his lab-heads think. I would speculate that in a
societal and scientific climate of the past, the world would have missed out on Arren’s brilliance
altogether. His 1 in 8 billion potential would have been side stepped due to having a hard time with
his “manners”. I almost did. But as his scientific record shows, and so many people clearly share in the
most touching way, he was heard loudly, followed with passion and became a source of inspiration.
This for me is a source of small consolation and a lesson for life. I am sadly certain I will never meet
another Arren in my life, but I will keep on looking for rare gems and will remember that a community
that gives them a place has a lot to gain when they are with us and beyond.