Yehudith Birk (; 30 September 1926 – 14 January 2013) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

-born

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i biochemist, awarded the 1998

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for agricultural research.

Biography

Yehudith Gershtanski (later Birk) was born in

Grajewo Grajewo (; ) is a town in north-eastern Poland with 21,499 inhabitants (2016). It is the capital of Grajewo County within the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is located within the historic region of Masovia, near the border with Podlachia and Masuria. H ...

, Poland to Frida (née Borowitz; 1895–1974) and Yitzhak Gershtanski (1890–1950), both ardent Zionist activists. Frida was an accountant and Baruch was a businessman. The family

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

to the

British Mandate for Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

in 1935, settling in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. Gershtanski attended the school for workers’ children on Lasalle Street in Tel Aviv.Yehudit Birk, 1926-2013, Wife, Mother and Scientist

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

She studied for a master's degree in biochemistry and microbiology at

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, 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. ...

, completing her degree in December 1950. She received a doctorate in biochemistry from Hebrew University's Faculty of Agriculture in

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

in 1954. From 1948–49, she served in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

' science corps, achieving the rank of second lieutenant in a scientific research unit which was developing and testing parachute flares which would be dropped from planes to illuminate enemy territory. Around 1948, at the onset of the

1947–1949 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionism, Zionist forces conquered territory and established ...

, Gershtanski married a physicist with the Weizmann Institute, Meir Birk (born 1924 – died 2000), whom she had first met in 1937, when she was eleven years old, as he was the son of her parents' landlords on Balfour Street, Tel Aviv. They had two sons: Yitzhak (born 1953) and Ohad-Shmuel (born 1957).

Academic career

In 1956, she began teaching at the Faculty of Agriculture, attaining full professorship in 1970. She founded the

Food Science Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...

and Nutrition school at the Hebrew University Institute of Biochemistry, and was its founding director from 1972–74. She was dean of the Faulty of Agriculture from 1977–80. Her best-known achievement was isolating and investigating a protease inhibitor predominant in legume seeds, known today as the

Bowman–Birk protease inhibitor In molecular biology, the Bowman–Birk protease inhibitor family of proteins consists of eukaryotic proteinase inhibitors, belonging to MEROPS inhibitor family I12, clan IF. They mainly inhibit serine peptidases of the S1 family, but also inhibit ...

. She also helped discover the ß-lipotropin (lipolytic hormone). Her book, ''Plant Protease Inhibitors: Significance in Nutrition, Plant Protection, Cancer Prevention and Genetic Engineering'', was published in 2003.

Awards and recognition

In 1978, Birk received the Rothschild Prize and the Mo'ezet Irgunei Nashim be-Yisrael Medal for her accomplishments in research and teaching. From 1990–95, she served as Pro-Rector of the Hebrew University. A member of the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities since 1993, Birk was elected as an active member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2004.

References

External links

Profile of Prof. Yehudith Birk (1926-2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birk, Yehudith 1926 births 2013 deaths Israeli biochemists Israeli women chemists Polish emigrants to Israel Scientists from Tel Aviv Women microbiologists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 20th-century women scientists

Biography

Academic career

Awards and recognition

See also

References

External links