Israel Prize winner Shlomo Bentin killed while bicycling in California

Prominent Israeli psychologist Shlomo Bentin, winner of the 2012 Israel Prize, was killed on Friday afternoon while bicycling in Berkeley, California.

Bentin, 65, was found lying in the street after colliding with a dump truck and died shortly after. The driver of the truck was apparently unaware that anything had occurred and continued on his route. He later returned when a fellow motorist informed him of the accident. Local news stations reported that the driver was cooperating fully with the police and was not arrested.

Bentin was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1946. He graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology in 1974. In 1977 he earned his Master of Sciences degree from the Technion in Haifa, and in 1982 his PhD in neuropsychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In addition to teaching psychology and education at the Hebrew University, Bentin was a member of the university’s Center for Neural Computation. Additionally, he was a frequent lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, where he also conducted research experiments and published collaborative papers with UC Berkeley professors.

According to Israel National News, Bentin is survived by a wife and three children.