On Monday, Aug. 5, Mark Jay Beran of Rockville. Born on Aug. 19, 1930, in Brooklyn, Mark earned a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
His academic career began at the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of engineering. After making aliyah to Israel with his family, he joined the faculty of engineering at Tel Aviv University. He was the first chairman of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department and was a full professor in the department until his retirement in 1998. Thereafter, he was professor emeritus until the time of his death.
Well respected in his field and internationally recognized, he made fundamental contributions to the theory of wave propagation in random media and made contributions to the role of statistics in continuum mechanics (his second book was on this subject). He was a fellow of both the Optical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of America.
Mark, is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Barbara Black Beran of Rockville and his three children: Sarah Steinberg (Robert) Rockville, Andrew Beran (Tricia) Scottsdale, Ariz., and Emily Landau (Giora) Ra’anana, Israel. Six grandchildren and one great-grandchild also survive him. Donations in Mark’s memory may be made to American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA).
