Background
Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family of Russian origin.
physicist university professor
Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family of Russian origin.
She studied mathematics, earning a Bachelor of Science From Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1938, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University in 1948.
She is known for contributions to Albert Einstein"s general theory of relativity, to statistical physics, where she used applied spinor analysis to rederive the result of Lars Onsager on the partition function of the two-dimensional Ising Model, and to the study of the Mössbauer effect, on which she collaborated with John von Neumann and Harry In 1926 the family immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine, living first in Tel Aviv, and then in Jerusalem. Her main interests during her youth were music and mathematics. She spent the following years at the University of Pennsylvania working on a mathematical linguistics project
Kaufman returned to Israel in 1960 (with Harris) where she became professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (1960–1971) and later on at the University of Haifa (1972–1988).
They settled in kibbutz Mishmar Ha"emek, and adopted a daughter, Tamar. The couple returned to the United States in 1982.
They settled in Pennsylvania, where Harris taught. He died in 1992. She died in early January 2010 at the Carmel Hospital, Haifa, following a stay at a nursing home in Kiryat Tiv"on, not far from Haifa.
Her body was cremated, according to her wishes.