Scienceאריה זריצקי

Arieh Zaritsky

Arieh Zaritsky is an Israeli microbiologist who works in bacteriology and taught at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

born 1942Research on bacterial cell divisionBiological control of mosquito larvaeFounding the startup Bio San

Born: 6 June 1942, Tel Aviv
Occupation: researcher
Education: University of Copenhagen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Leicester

Arieh Zaritsky was born in 1942 in Tel Aviv

Arieh Zaritsky was born on June 6, 1942, in Tel Aviv, to Bezalel and Rachel Zaritsky. His sister is the architect Arnona Axelrod. He was named after his mother's brother, Arieh Polonsky.

After serving in the Combat Engineering Corps, he studied genetics and biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a master's degree in genetics in 1966. He completed a doctorate at the University of Leicester in England in 1971, on DNA replication and cell division. He then did postdoctoral research in Copenhagen on bacterial growth control.

In 1973 he joined Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he headed the Department of Life Sciences and served as vice dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. His research covers bacterial cell division, bacteria and their viruses, and biological control of mosquito larvae. The applied work led to a startup, Bio San Ltd, which later closed because field trials of transgenic bacteria were not approved.

He retired in 2012 but kept doing research. He was on the board of the Professors for a Strong Israel group and volunteers with HaShomer HaChadash in the southern Hebron Hills. He lives in Lehavim with his wife Hila, and they have 3 children.