Born: Israel
Primarily active in: Israel

1954-2025

Dr. Omni Rand, Technion Aerospace Engineering Professor

Born in Israel in 1954, Professor Rand earned his bachelor, master and doctorate of science degrees in aerospace engineering from the Technion. Following postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US, he joined the Technion faculty in 1987, where he devoted nearly four decades to advancing aerospace science and engineering education. Between 2006 and 2010, he served as dean of the faculty of Aerospace Engineering and head of the Aerospace Research Center.

Professor Rand was a fellow of the Vertical Flight Society and a leading authority in rotary-wing theory, rotorcraft aeromechanics, anisotropic elasticity and composite structures. He authored the textbook Analytical Methods in Anisotropic Elasticity, which remains a foundational reference in the field of composite material analysis.

Rand’s achievements include working as editor-in-chief of Science and Engineering of Composite Materials from 2001–2007. Starting in 2000, Rand represented Israel at the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences. He founded and organized the annual Israeli Symposium on Composite Materials and Structures, which has been held at the Technion for more than 15 years.

the US-Israel Memorandum of Agreement, collaborating for more than two decades on pioneering research in rotorcraft aerodynamics and flight mechanics. Rand also developed Rotorcraft Analysis for Preliminary Design (RAPiD), an advanced computational tool used widely in Israel and elsewhere for the analysis and optimization of helicopter and tiltrotor systems.

The untimely passing of Dr. Omni Rand on August 3, 2025 was announced by the Technion — the Israel Institute of Technology — where Rand was the professor emeritus at the Aerospace Engineering Department and director of the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science & Technology.