Scienceאברהם פאהן

Avraham Fahn

Avraham Fahn was an Israeli professor of botany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a winner of the Israel Prize in life sciences in 1963.

1916 to 2012Research on plant anatomyIsrael Prize in life sciencesRestoring Mount Scopus botanical gardens

Died: 19 February 2012
Occupation: botanist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Avraham Fahn was born in 1916 in Vienna

Avraham Fahn was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1916. His parents, Asher and Sarah Fahn, were refugees from Galicia during World War I. The family later returned to the town of Halych in Poland, and in 1935 he immigrated to Mandate Palestine.

From 1942 to 1945 he taught biology at the Beit Yerah agricultural high school in the Jordan Valley. He earned a PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1948. That year he served in the IDF during the War of Independence and married Nechama Eckheiser, and the couple had 3 daughters.

He joined the Hebrew University faculty in 1952 as a botany lecturer. He was a research fellow at Cambridge in 1952 to 1953 and at Harvard in 1956. He became associate professor in 1960 and full professor in 1965, and served as dean from 1964 to 1966 and pro-rector from 1969 to 1970.

After the Six Day War he helped restore the university's botanical gardens on Mount Scopus. He also headed the forestry department of the Volcani Institute for many years. His books on plant anatomy became basic texts in the field.

He retired in 1985. From 1995 to 1999 he was vice president of the International Association of Botanists. He died on February 19, 2012.