Harry Zvi Tabor (; March 7, 1917 – December 15, 2015) was an Israeli

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He is known as the father of Israeli solar energy.BGU shields its eyes and stares into the solar future
Ehud Zion Waldoks, ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', November 2, 2008. He is generally credited with having brought Israel's

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

program to international prominence.Harry Zvi Tabor
Cleveland Cutler,

Encyclopedia of the Earth The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' (''EoE'') is an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The ''Encyclopedia'' is described as a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by s ...

, 2007.

Biography

Harry Zvi Tabor was born at London in 1917 to Charles and Rebecca Tabor. As a youth, he was involved in the UK branch of

Habonim Dror Habonim Dror (, "the builders–freedom") is a Jewish Labor Zionist youth movement formed in 1982 through the merger of two earlier movements: Habonim and Dror. Habonim (, "the builders") was established in 1929 in the United Kingdom and later e ...

, and participated in an 80th anniversary reunion in 2009. In 1947 he married Vivenne Landau. He received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and

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 died in Jerusalem on December 15, 2015, at the age of 98.

Scientific career

In 1949

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

sent a letter to England to offer Tabor a job on the 'physics and engineering desk' of the Research Council of Israel, which he accepted. His first task was to create the National Physical Laboratory of Israel, which had been Tabor's idea as he felt it was essential the new country have the equivalent of the National Physical Laboratory in Britain to create standards amongst the different measurements in use in the country, primarily

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, Ottoman and

metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

. Once the laboratory was established, he focused on

for

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

. He was instrumental in developing the solar water heater that 95 percent of Israeli households have. In 1992 he was awarded an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

. These simple water heaters operated without pumps, whereby cold water was heated in the panel, which acted as a

thermosiphon A thermosiphon (or thermosyphon) is a device that employs a method of passive heat transfer, heat exchange based on natural convection, which circulates a fluid without the necessity of a mechanical pump. Thermosiphoning is used for circulation ...

. This unit in turn became the standard for

solar water heating Solar water heating (SWH) is water heating, heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for ...

worldwide, and helped popularize the commercialization of solar thermal technology in the United States in the 1970s, where Tabor lectured and acted as a consultant to solar start-up companies such as Northrup, Inc. which subsequently merged into ARCO Solar, which became BP Solar. Tabor experimented with various coatings to optimize the absorptivity of solar energy, with minimizing the re-radiation, or emissivity of the heat absorbed. This led to his development of a "black chrome" surface for the copper water-bearing plate. Tabor worked with the Standards Institute of Israel, to establish testing procedures and an official performance certificates so that a solar collector could not be bought without SII certification. Tabor and French immigrant Lucien Bronicki developed a small solar power unit, an

Organic Rankine cycle In thermal engineering, the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a type of thermodynamic cycle. It is a variation of the Rankine cycle named for its use of an organic, high- molecular-mass fluid (compared to water) whose vaporization temperature is l ...

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

, for developing countries with problematic power grids.Israeli Section of the International Solar Energy Society
, edited by Gershon Grossman, Faculty of

Mechanical Energy In physical sciences, mechanical energy is the sum of macroscopic potential and kinetic energies. The principle of conservation of mechanical energy states that if an isolated system is subject only to conservative forces, then the mechanical ...

, Techion,

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

; Final draft. It was designed to neutralize the maintenance issues of

reciprocating engine A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of al ...

s so it had only one moving part, the

rotor ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...

. A 3 kWe prototype was exhibited at the 1961

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Conference on New Sources of Energy in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, but it failed to find commercial success.

Awards and recognition

* 1975 –

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Energy Award * 1979 – Inducted in Solar Hall of Fame * 1981 –

International Solar Energy Society ' The International Solar Energy Society (ISES), founded in 1954, is a UN-accredited membership organization promoting renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natura ...

Award * 1981 –

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

Foundation Energy Award * 1994 – Passive Low Energy Architecture International Award * 1995 – Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

Quality of Life Award * 2014 – Israeli President's Medal of Distinction

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabor, Harry Zvi Solar power in Israel 1917 births 2015 deaths British emigrants to Israel Israeli engineers Israeli Jews Israeli physicists Alumni of the University of London Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Distinction of Israel Jewish physicists Jewish British scientists Burials at Har HaMenuchot Weizmann Prize recipients

Biography

Scientific career

Awards and recognition

See also

References