Dedicated to Arren - our mentor, colleague, and friend

This site is a tribute to Arren Bar-Even, created by his friends and colleagues. We will miss him and he remains with us in our future, wherever our pathways may lead us.

For personal messages and condolences to Arren's close ones, including his friends, family and scientific family - please reach out to bar.even.group@gmail.com or Ron Milo (Weizmann Institute of Science).

If you wish to share your memories with a wider community on this page, you can leave thoughts (a text), pictures, or stories (e.g. links to interviews/videos; or commented pictures) below.

If you wish to let readers know who you are, please sign your name at the end of your text (please do not modify the "Account details" of the Guest Access). All other contributions will remain anonymous.

The page can be viewed publicly - You can contribute memories without registration via this link (as "Guest"): http://bit.ly/condolences-arren

If you wish to contact the members of Arren's research group and creators of this page, please write to bar.even.group@gmail.com

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Words of farewell from the Lab:

In Arren's absence, one of the most commonly echoed sentiments has been that we have lost so many different people at once. Arren was a mentor, a supervisor, a friend and the head of a family. He brought a diverse group of people together and gave them a home and a sense of purpose in their scientific careers. He set new standards for everyone who worked with him and opened up biochemical possibilities simply not on offer elsewhere. We would like to stress the words work with him, because Arren always gave you the feeling that you were collaborative, even when he was running miles ahead.
 
A close friend described Arren as a cross between a cactus and a cat, and there is something to this. If you worked with him for more than 5 minutes there will have been times where he will have been difficult and loveable in equal parts. Arren had the courage to find out who he was in life and then uncompromisingly refuse to be anyone else. He was never shy of confrontation and understood that temporary arguments are meaningless if you are working on something truly important to you and if both parties are being honest with themselves. 
 
Arren was the most unflinchingly supportive supervisor one could imagine. He walked each and every member of his lab through difficult periods in their lives, considering this part of the job. Whether he was breezing through the sections of a paper you couldn't write while singing Dana International or helping you put yourself forward for a job, he always cared via actions, making things happen for you. He will have pushed so many of us in the group to achieve more than we thought we could, giving his total trust that we were better than we thought we were. 
 
Arren was a restless character, and now he is finally at peace. Many of us know how he felt about death, and know that he was not afraid or worried about what comes next. There is no way to do justice to such a big personality in such a short text, but we wanted to show our huge appreciation for all of the opportunity and support he showed us and wish him the best wherever he is now. May you rest in peace Arren

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Bar-Even Lab (@WeTheBarEvenLab): On Twitter, September 23, 2020

Our lab has faced the greatest loss imaginable. To us, Arren was a mentor, a supervisor, a friend and the head of a family. We are shocked and speechless. Our thoughts are with everyone who got to know this unique genius. He will be sorely missed. pic.twitter.com/aIbl9DyWPj

Contribute

Please join us in sharing memories, anecdotes and pictures of Arren to keep him in our thoughts. Your contribution will remain here and can be viewed by family, friends, colleagues and the community.

Thoughts

Thanks for your work on the link between evolutionary-ecological-physiological-physico-chemical constraints on the functioning of enzymes, metabolic pathways, microorganisms. It teach me and inspired me a lot during my PhD in Uppsala, especially for writing my thesis summary. I really appreciated the way you explained in simple terms fundamentals notions of thermodynamics, kinetics or the logic and constraints behind some cellular processes. Even though, I found interesting the idea of trying to link your work with other disciplines like microbiology in soil sciences. I understand that there is a major gap to achieve this, for instance in terms of the cost of the instruments, and applicability of methods. Yet, I believe the principles and constraints from thermodynamics, kinetics in E.coli also applied in a microbial community living in a network of pores in soils and supplied by heterogeneous substrates when close to roots.
Louis J. P. Dufour
1st November 2024
Thanks for your creation and works in the CO2 utilization research @Arren Bar-Even
Chuang
20th July 2021
I really admired Arren's work as a student, which had a strong influence over me and my life choices. We met a couple of times, but our paths crossed only tangentially. I will always regret not having learned directly from him and not getting to know better the incredible person he was, but I will cherish his influence over my life, even though he might not have even known. Condolences to all the people that were close to him. Stefano
Stefano
17th November 2020
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