1973 – B.Sc., Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, USA
1978 – M.Sc., Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
1978 – Ph.D., Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Research Interests
Info-gap decision theory: decisions under severe uncertainty.
Reliability of mechanical systems.
Fault diagnosis
Modelling uncertain dynamic systems
Applications in engineering, biological conservation, economics, project management, medicine and homeland security
Guest Appointments
Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.
Visiting Scientist, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Visiting Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Department of Systems Design Engineering and Division of Solid Mechanics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA.
Laboratory of Applied Mechanics, University of Franche-Comte, Besancon, France.
Curt-Risch Institute for Dynamics, Acoustics and Measurement Technology, University of Hannover, Germany.
Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Leverhulme visiting professor, University of Oxford
Oxford-Martin visiting fellow, University of Oxford
Distinguished visiting scholar, University of Oxford
Honors and Awards
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship
Phi Beta Kappa Society
Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Original Books:
Y. Ben-Haim, 2018, Dilemmas of Wonderland: Decisions in the Age of Innovation, Oxford University Press.
Y. Ben-Haim, 2010, Info-Gap Economics: An Operational Introduction, Palgrave-Macmillan.
Y. Ben-Haim, 2006, Info-Gap Decision Theory: Decisions Under Severe Uncertainty, 2nd edition, Academic Press.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1996, Robust Reliability in the Mechanical Sciences, Springer-Verlag.
Y. Ben-Haim and I. Elishakoff, 1990, Convex Models of Uncertainty in Applied Mechanics, Elsevier Science Publishers.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1985, The Assay of Spatially Random Material, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Edited Book:
H.G. Natke and Y. Ben-Haim, eds., 1997, Uncertainty: Models and Measures, Proceedings of a Volkswagen Foundation Workshop. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin.
Invited Articles:
Izuru Takewaki and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2008, Info-gap robust design of passively controlled structures with load and model uncertainties, to appear in Structural Design Optimization Considering Uncertainties, Yiannis Tsompanakis, editor. Taylor and Francis Publishers.
Izuru Takewaki and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2005, Info-gap robust design with load andmodel uncertainties, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 288: 551-570.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2005, Info-gap Decision Theory For Engineering Design. Or: Why`Good' is Preferable to `Best', appearing as chapter 11 in Engineering Design Reliability Handbook, Edited by E. Nikolaides, D. Ghiocel and SurendraSinghal, CRC Press.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2000, Robustness of model-based fault diagnosis: Decisions with information-gap models of uncertainty. International Journal of Systems Science, 31: 1511-1518.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 1998, Reliability of Vibrating Structures With Uncertain Inputs. Shock and Vibration Digest, 30:106-113.
Y. Ben-Haim, S. Cogan and L. Sanseigne, 1998, Usability of Mathematical Models in Mechanical Decision Processes, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. 12: 121-134.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 1997, Robust reliability of structures, Advances in Applied Mechanics, vol.33, pp.1-41.
Humanistic Publications:
Yakov Ben-Haim, Innovation dilemmas in military affairs, Maarachot, (in Hebrew) issue 454, April 2014, pp.28-31.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2007, Peirce, Haack and Info-gaps, in Susan Haack, a lady of distinctions: the philosopher responds to her critics , edited by Cornelis de Waal, Prometheus Books.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2001, New directions in information, uncertainty and decision for mechanical systems analysis, editorial introduction to special issue of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 15: 453-455.
Avy Shtub, Sary Regev and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2000, Sikun m'hushav (Calculated Risk), Tasiah v'Nihul, issue #50, pp.32-37. In Hebrew.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Cheerful Curse, a poem. Physics Today, December 1997, vol.50, p.144.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Art and the Exponential: Graphical Exploration of the Matrix Exponential Function, Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for Arts, Sciences and Technology, 30: 49-52 (1997).
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2000, Why the best engineers should study humanities, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education. 28:195 – 200
Selected Articles:
Michael Ben-Gad, Yakov Ben-Haim and Dan Peled, Allocating security expenditures under Knightian uncertainty: An info-gap approach, Defence and Peace Economics, to appear.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Assessing `beyond a reasonable doubt' without probability: An info-gap perspective, Law, Probability and Risk, to appear.Yakov Ben-Haim and Mike Smithson, 2018, Data-Based Prediction under Uncertainty: A Dual Approach. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 87: 11-30.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2018, WEI-WUV for assessing force effectiveness: Managing uncertainty with info-gap theory, Military Operations Research Journal, 23(4): 37-49.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2018, Positivism and its limitations for strategic intelligence: A non-constructivist info-gap critique, Intelligence and National Security, 33(6): 904-917.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Maria Demertzis and Jan Willem Van den End, 2018, Evaluating monetary policy rules under fundamental uncertainty: An info-gap approach, Economic Modelling, 73: 55-70.
Yoshihiro Kanno, Shinnosuke Fujita and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2017, Structural Design for earthquake resilience: Info-gap management of uncertainty, Structural Safety, vol. 69, pp.23-33.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2017, Does a better model yield a better argument? An info-gap analysis, Proceedings of the Royal Society, A, 5 April 2017.
Yakov Ben-Haim and Maria Demertzis, 2016, Decision making in times of Knightian uncertainty: An info-gap perspective, Economics, The Open-Access, Open Assessment e-journal, Special Issue Radical Uncertainty and Its Implications for Economics. No. 2016-23: 1-29.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2016, Uncertainty and deterrence, Air and Space Power Journal – A&F, vol. 7, issue 3, pp.26-49.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2016, Policy neutrality and uncertainty: An info-gap perspective, Intelligence and National Security, published online 18.12.2015, vol.31, #7, pp.978-992.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2015, Dealing with uncertainty in strategic decision-making, Parameters, the US Army War College Quarterly, 45(3) Autumn 2015.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Management of Invasive Species: Info-Gap Perspectives, to appear in Managing Invasive Species, Terry Walshe and Mark A. Burgman, eds., Cambridge University Press.
Michael Smithson and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2015, Reasoned decision making without math? Adaptability and robustness in response to surprise, to appear in Risk Analysis.
Yakov Ben Haim, Miriam Zacksenhouse, Ronit Eshel, Raphael Levi, Avi Fuerst and Wayne Bentley, 2014, Failure detection with likelihood ratio tests and uncertain probabilities: An info-gap application, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 48, pp.1-14.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2014, Robust satisficing and the probability of survival, International Journal of Systems Science, 45(1): 3-19.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2014, Order and Indeterminism: An Info-Gap Perspective, in Error and Uncertainty in Scientific Practice, Marcel Boumans, Giora Hon, and Arthur Petersen, editors, Pickering & Chatto Publishers, London.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Craig Osteen and L. Joe Moffitt, 2013, Policy Dilemma of Innovation: An Info-Gap Approach, Ecological Economics, 85: 130-138.
Yemshanov, Denys, Frank H. Koch, Yakov Ben-Haim, Marla Downing, Frank Sapio and Marty Siltanen, 2013, A new multi-criteria risk mapping approach based on a multi-attribute frontier concept, Risk Analysis, 33(9): 1694-1709.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2013, Managing an innovation dilemma in policy formulation with info-gap theory: The case of an invasive species (in Hebrew), Ecology and Environment, vol.4, issue 4, pp.305-311.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Nicola M. Zetola and Clifford Dacso, 2012, Info-Gap Management of Public Health Policy for TB with HIV-Prevalence, BMC Public Health, 12: 1091.
Yakov Ben-Haim and Francois Hemez, 2012, Robustness, Fidelity and Prediction-Looseness of Models, Proceedings of the Royal Society, A, 468: 227-244.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2012, Modeling and design of a Hertzian contact: An info-gap approach, Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design, 47(3): 153-162.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2012, Doing Our Best: Optimization and the Management of Risk, Risk Analysis, 32(8): 1326-1332.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2012, Why risk analysis is difficult, and some thoughts on how to proceed, Risk Analysis, 32(10): 1638-1646.
Davidovitch, Lior and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2011, Is your profiling strategy robust?, Law, Probability and Risk, 10: 59-76.
Schwartz, Barry, Yakov Ben-Haim, and Cliff Dacso, 2011, What Makes a Good Decision? Robust Satisficing as a Normative Standard of Rational Behaviour, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 41(2): 209-227.
Yoshihiro Kanno and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2011, Redundancy and Robustness, Or, When is Redundancy Redundant? ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 137(9): 935-945.
M.A. Burgman, B.A. Wintle, C.A. Thompson, A. Moilanen, M.C. Runge, and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2010, Reconciling uncertain costs and benefits in Bayes nets for invasive species management, Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol. 30, #2, pp.277-284.
Yemshanov, Denys, Frank H. Koch, Yakov Ben-Haim and William D. Smith, 2010, Robustness of risk maps and survey networks to knowledge gaps about a new invasive pest, Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol. 30, #2, pp.261-276.
Yemshanov, Denys, Frank H. Koch, Yakov Ben-Haim and William D. Smith, 2010, Detection capacity, information gaps and the design of surveillance programs for invasive forest pests, Journal of Environmental Management, 91: 2535-2546.
Lior Davidovitch and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2010, Robust satisficing voting: Why are uncertain voters biased towards sincerity? Public Choice, vol.145, Issue 1, pp.265-280.
Sisso, Itay, Tal Shima, and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2010, Info-gap approach to multi agent search under severe uncertainty, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 26, #6,
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2011, Interpreting Null Results from Measurements with uncertain correlations: An Info-gap approach, Risk Analysis-An International Journal, vol.31 (1), pp.78-85.
Tania Mirer and Yakov Ben-Haim, Reliability Assessment of Explosive Material Based on Penalty Tests: An Info-Gap Approach, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O, Journal of Risk and Reliability, to appear.
Lior Davidovitch, Richard Stoklosa, Jonathan Majer, Alex Nietrzeba, Peter Whittle, Kerrie Mengersen and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2009, Info-Gap theory and robust design of surveillance for invasive species: The case study of Barrow Island, Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 90, Issue 8, pp.2785-2793.
Yakov Ben-Haim, Clifford C. Dacso, Jonathon Carrasco and Nithin Rajan, 2009, Heterogeneous Uncertainties in Cholesterol Management, International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 50: 1046-1065.
Yakov Ben-Haim and Clifford C. Dacso, 2010, Info-gap decision theory and its potential applications in the clinic, an editorial, Personalized Medicine, vol. 7, #1, pp.1-3.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2009, Info-gap forecasting and the advantage of sub-optimal models, European Journal of Operational Research, 197: 203-213.
John K. Stranlund and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2008, Price-based vs. quantity-based environmental regulation under Knightian uncertainty: An info-gap robust satisficing perspective, Journal of Environmental Management, 87: 443-449.
David R. Fox, Yakov Ben-Haim, Keith R. Hayes, Michael McCarthy, Brendan Wintle, Piers Dunstan, 2007, An info-gap approach to power and sample size calculations, Environmetrics, vol. 18, pp.189-203.
Atte Moilanen, Michael C. Runge, Jane Elith, Andrew Tyre, Yohay Carmel, Eric Fegraus, Brendan Wintle, Mark Burgman and Yakov Ben-Haim, Planning for robust reserve networks using uncertainty analysis,Ecological Modelling, vol. 199, issue 1, pp.115-124.
Sary Regev, Avraham Shtub and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2006, Managing project risks as knowledge gaps, Project Management Journal, vol. 37, issue #5, pp.17-25.
S.Gareth Pierce, Yakov Ben-Haim, Keith Worden, Graeme Manson, 2006, Evaluationof neural network robust reliability using information-gap theory, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, vol.17, No.6, pp.1349-1361.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2005, Value at risk with Info-gap uncertainty, Journal of Risk Finance, vol. 6, #5, pp.388-403.
Yohay Carmel and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2005, Info-gap robust-satisficing model of foraging behavior: Do foragers optimize or satisfice?, American Naturalist, 166: 633-641.
Helen M. Regan, Yakov Ben-Haim, Bill Langford, Will G. Wilson, Per Lundberg, Sandy J. Andelman, Mark A. Burgman, 2005, Robust decision making under severe uncertainty for conservation management, Ecological Applications, vol.15(4):1471-1477.
Francois M.Hemez and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2004, Info-gap robustness for thecorrelation of tests and simulations of a nonlinear transient, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 18, #6, pp.1443-1467. Yakov Ben-Haim, 2004, Uncertainty, probability and information-gaps, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 85: 249-266.
Yakov Ben-Haim and Keith W. Hipel, 2002, The graph model for conflict resolution with information-gap uncertainty in preferences, Applied Mathematics and Computation, 126: 319-340.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 2000, Robust rationality and decisions under severe uncertainty, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 337:171-199.
Yakov Ben-Haim, 1999, Set-models of information-gap uncertainty: Axioms and inference schemes, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 336: 1093-1117.
Keith W. Hipel and Yakov Ben-Haim, 1999, Decision making in an uncertain world: Information-gap modelling in water resources management, IEEE Trans., Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part C. 29: 506-517.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1998, Sequential Tests Based on Convex Models of Uncertainty, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. 12:427-448.
Yakov Ben-Haim and Alexander Laufer, 1998, Robust Reliability of Projects With Activity-Duration Uncertainty, ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 124: 125-132.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1997, Beyond maximum entropy: Exploring the structure of uncertainty, in H.G. Natke and Y. Ben-Haim, eds., Uncertainty: Models and Measures, Proceedings of a Volkswagen Foundation Workshop. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin.
S. Cogan, G. Lallement, F. Ayer and Y. Ben-Haim, 1997, Model order reduction by selective sensitivity, AIAA Journal, 35:557-562.
Y. Ben-Haim, G. Chen and T.T. Soong, 1996, Maximum Structural Response Using Convex Models, ASCE J. Engineering Mechanics, 122: 325-333.
S. Cogan, G. Lallement, F. Ayer and Y. Ben-Haim, 1995, Updating linear elastic models with modal selective sensitivity, Inverse Problems in Engineering, 2: 29-47.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1995, A non-probabilistic measure of reliability of linear systems based on expansion of convex models, Structural Safety, 17:91-109.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1995, A Note on Convex Models of Uncertainty for Small Initial Imperfections of Non-Linear Structures, Zeitschrift fuer Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, 75: 901-908.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1994, A non-probabilistic concept of reliability, Structural Safety, 14: 227-245.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1994, Fatigue lifetime with load uncertainty represented by convex model, ASCE, J. Engineering Mechanics, 120: 445-462.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1994, Convex Models of Uncertainty: Applications and Implications, Erkenntnis: An International Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 41: 139-156.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1993, Convex models for uncertainty in radial pulse buckling of shells, ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, 60: 683-688.
Y. Ben-Haim and U. Prells, 1993, Selective sensitivity in the frequency domain, Part I: Theory. Part II: Applications. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 7: 461-475, 551-574.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1993, Failure of an axially compressed beam with uncertain initial deflection of bounded strain energy, International Journal of Engineering Science, 31:989-1001.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1993, Identification of certain polynomial nonlinear structures by adaptive selectively-sensitive excitation, ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, 115:246-255.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1992, Adaptive diagnosis of faults in elastic structures by static displacement measurement: The method of selective sensitivity, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 6: 85-96.
Y. Ben-Haim, 1990, Optimizing multi-hypothesis diagnosis of control-actuator failures in linear systems, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 13: 744-750.
תחומי מחקר
תורת פער–ידע והחלטות בתנאי אי–וודאות חמורה; אמינות וכשל; מידול מערכות עם אי–וודאות; יישומים בהנדסה, שימור הסביבה, כלכלה, מדיניות ציבורית, רפואה, ובטחון לאומי.