Neri Oxman was born on February 6, 1976, and is a famous designer of American-Israeli origin. She is also a professor at the MIT Media Lab. Famously known for her aesthetics in art and architecture, she is quite a multitalented figure.
Early life
Neri Oxman was born and brought up in Israel. Her family is of Jewish descent. She completed her graduation in 1994 from the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, Israel.
She had later enlisted herself in the Israeli Air Force and had gone up to the rank of first lieutenant. She then joined the Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem.
Oxman then took up her passion for architecture at the Technion– Israel Institute of Technology two years later. After this, she completed her graduation in 2004 from London Architectural Association School of Architecture. She completed her PhD later in material-aware design, which granted her the position as an associate professor at MIT.
Personal Life and Relationship with Bill Ackman
Osvaldo Golijov is an Argentine composer and the first husband of Oxman. She divorced him and later married Bill Ackman.
Neri Oxman and William Albert Ackman dated for about seven months before getting married in Jan 2019 at Central Synagogue in New York. Bill Ackman is an American investor and hedge fund manager. They together have a daughter named, Raika.
Bill Ackman talks about her marriage, “She was everything they had [Peretz] had described to me. I knew in about five seconds that she was perfect for me.”
They eventually started living in an apartment in Manhattan which both of them had designed together. Bill Ackman describes it as a blissful marriage and that it is everything that he had always wanted.
Awards won by Oxman
Oxman has till date received the Vileck Prize in Design in 2014 and Earth Award in 2009.
In 2009, her name was also included in the ICON’s list of the “20 Most Influential Architects to Shape Our Future”. She proves to be one of the most influential architects of all times.
Television Appearances
Neri Oxman was a part of the second episode of season 2 of Netflix docu-series Abstract: The Art of Design.
Notable work
Few of the notable works of Neri Oxman includes the: Silk Pavilion (2013), Wanderers (2015) and Material Ecology (2020).
Her allegiance to Israeli Air Force as First Lieutenant also gives her remarkable distinction.
