Orit Peleg

• Year

  2024

• Program

  Schmidt Science Polymaths

• Institution

  University of Colorado Boulder

• Field of Study

  Computer Science, Biophysics

• Location

  Boulder, USA

Dr. Orit Peleg is an Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department and BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Peleg leads an interdisciplinary lab where she and her lab members seamlessly navigate the fields of computer science and physics, while engaging with nature by tending to honeybee hives and chasing fireflies in forests. Her academic journey began with a BSc in Physics & Computer Science, then an MSc in Physics, summa cum laude, from Bar–Ilan University in 2007, leading to a Ph.D. in Materials Science from ETH Zürich in 2012. After a Postdoctoral appointment at Harvard University, she took the role of Assistant Professor at Boulder in 2018 and earned tenure as an Associate Professor in 2023. She has also held an External Professor position at the Santa Fe Institute since 2019. With formal affiliations in the Physics, Applied Math, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology departments at CU Boulder, Peleg has been immersing herself in the vibrant worlds of collective animal behavior, both in the lab and the wild, where her interwoven experiment-theory approach illuminated core principles of collective intelligences.