Ariel Heimann

Ariel Heimann was born in 1953 in Jerusalem

Heimann was born in Jerusalem in 1953, the eldest son of Hava and Haim Heimann, who came to the country from Germany as children. He grew up in the Rehavia neighborhood and finished the Hebrew Gymnasium Rehavia in 1971. He was active in the Jerusalem Scouts as a counselor.

He joined the IDF in 1971 and volunteered for Sayeret Matkal. As an officer cadet he fought in the Yom Kippur War, then served as a platoon commander in the Armored Corps. He was discharged in 1975 as a lieutenant.

He studied geology and biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earned a master's degree in 1982 to 1985 and a doctorate in 1986 to 1990 on the Dead Sea Rift in northern Israel. In 1983 he became the first researcher at the Golan Research Institute. After postdoctoral work at Ohio State University, he joined the Geological Survey in Jerusalem in 1992 as a senior researcher.

In January 2002 he was appointed the first Chief Reserve Officer and led work on a new reserve service model and the Reserve Service Law, passed in April 2008. He was a member of the 1999 steering committee on earthquake preparedness and in 2007 proposed an earthquake early warning system. From 2008 to 2017 he was director general of the Davidson Institute of Science Education.