Scienceאריה ליאו אוליצקי

Aryeh Leo Olitzki

Aryeh Leo Olitzki was an Israeli bacteriologist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who received the Israel Prize in medicine in 1967.

1898 to 1983Bacteriology research in IsraelEpidemiology of typhoid and dysenteryTextbook on bacteria and immunity1967 Israel Prize in medicine

Born: 4 June 1898, Allenstein
Died: 13 February 1983, Jerusalem
Occupation: bacteriologist, university teacher, non-fiction writer
Education: Frederick William University Berlin, University of Wrocław

Aryeh Leo Olitzki was born in 1898 in Allenstein

Olitzki was born in 1898 in Allenstein, East Prussia, in the German Empire. He studied medicine at the universities of Breslau and Berlin. He received his medical doctorate from Berlin in 1921 and worked as an assistant at the Institute of Hygiene in Breslau from 1921 to 1923.

In 1924 he immigrated to the Land of Israel. He ran the bacteriology laboratories of Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and in Safed. In 1928 he joined the faculty of the Hebrew University.

He became head of the bacteriology department in 1944 and a professor in 1949. From 1961 to 1965 he was dean of the medical school. His research focused on the epidemiology of infectious diseases such as typhoid and dysentery, and he also studied leprosy.

During the War of Independence he directed water testing in Jerusalem, and after the state was founded he helped the Ministry of Health build its epidemiology and public health system. He served as president of the Israel Society for Microbiology. With Nathan Grossowicz he wrote a two-volume textbook on bacteria and immunity, published in 1964 and 1968.

He received the Israel Prize in medicine in 1967. He died in 1983. A street in Beersheba is named after him.