 Aren Maeir was born in Rochester, New York, United States.He immigrated to Israel in 1969 and has lived there since.Following his service in the Israel Defense Forces (where he reached the rank of captain), he did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (PhD 1997 summa cum laude), and did a post-doctorate (2002-2003) at the (now defunct) Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT.