Daniel (Dani) Zohary (; 24 April 1926 - 16 December 2016) was an Israeli plant geneticist, agronomist, and professor at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

. He was the co-author of a comprehensive review of the origin and spread of domesticated plants in southwest Asia, Europe, and North Africa, ''Domestication of Plants in the Old World.''

Biography

Daniel Zohary was born in Jerusalem to Leah and Michael Zohary, who was a professor, writer, and pioneering botanist. Inspired by travels with his father on botanical expeditions, Zohary took an interest in the flora of the region and began to interact with other researchers like Tuviah Kushnir, Daniel Raz and Eviatar. He was conscripted at 17 and joined the Palmach. Three years later, Zohary went to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His study was interrupted by war in 1948, during which he was stationed in the Jerusalem Corridor where heavy fighting resulted in the loss of most of his platoon and many of his fellow students, including his close friend Tuviah Kushnir. In 1952, he moved to the University of California and worked on his PhD under G. Ledyard Stebbins on the

cytogenetics Cytogenetics is essentially a branch of genetics, but is also a part of cell biology/cytology (a subdivision of human anatomy), that is concerned with how the chromosomes relate to cell behaviour, particularly to their behaviour during mitosis an ...

of ''

Dactylis glomerata ''Dactylis glomerata'' is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, known as cock's-foot,Interactive Flora of NW Europ''Dactylis glomerata'' (Cock's-foot)/ref> also colloquially as orchard grass, or cat grass (due to its populari ...

''. In 1954 he married his girlfriend Devora, and in 1956, he returned with his family to the Hebrew University where he helped found the department of genetics. Zohary's wife Devora died in 1976, and he later remarried Lilly (born Monderer).Daniel Zohary - Curriculum Vitae
/ref> Zohary had three children Tamar, a marine biologist; Ruth, an artist; and Ehud, Professor of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the Safra Brain Center, Hebrew University. ---- ----

Awards

* J. Belling Award in Genetics, University of California, 1959 * ''Distinguished Economic Botanist,'' 2003

References

Israeli botanists Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem University of California alumni Scientists from Jerusalem 1926 births 2016 deaths {{Israel-botanist-stub