Memorial fund for Dr. Eden Rephaeli

We are establishing this memorial fund for Dr. Eden Rephaeli on behalf of his loving family. Eden passed away unexpectedly in June 2022. All donations collected here will go directly to his family, and will be disbursed to organizations that meant a lot to Eden.

Eden wore many hats - a bright physicist, a caring mentor, a visionary innovator, a loving husband, and a doting father. As remembered dearly by his wife, Dr. Inna Vishik:

"Everyone who knows me, knows that I am madly in love with my husband and cherish the life and family he built for us. Everyone who knows me professionally knows that I arranged my career to optimize my family life.

Recently, I experienced my worst nightmare. Eden had a terrible accident at work, lost vital signs for 20 mins, and eventually passed away yesterday. I lost my soulmate and our daughter lost the man who made her the incredible human she is.

It is ironic that the last time I saw Eden he was braindead, because he had the most brilliant mind. As a PhD student he came up with the idea of daytime radiative cooling–creating metamaterials which absorb sunlight and re-radiate the heat in the IR window of the atmosphere, into outer space. It took him a few years to convince his PhD advisor, and others ultimately took most of the credit. Now, many others make their careers off these ideas, and Eden has more citations than me and I am a frickin tenured professor. For the past decade he applied his technical and interpersonal brilliance to imaging systems for robotics, which is a bit too proprietary to discuss in detail, but his list of patents speak for itself. I am not trying to emphasize his professional accomplishments over who he was as a person, but realistically, creative outputs, when done well, have more longevity than people and memories.

Friends and family who know already have remarked that Eden was a truly exceptional in his mind and in his humanity, and pushed those around him to be better. This was precisely my experience. With his advice and example, he pushed me to be a better scientist, teacher, person, daughter, and parent. I cherish all our memories together, and am honored to have been his wife. The entire family is completely heartbroken."