David Amiran

David Amiran was born in 1910 in Berlin

David Amiran was born in Berlin in 1910. He studied geography at the universities of Freiburg and Frankfurt, then moved to the University of Berlin. From there he went on a geomorphological survey in the Ural Mountains.

After the Nazis rose to power, he moved to Switzerland and completed a doctorate on Italian rivers at the University of Bern. In 1935 he immigrated to the Land of Israel. He first worked as a library assistant for the geologist Yehuda Picard.

In 1937 he proposed an atlas of the Land of Israel, but he was then drafted into the British army. He served in a mapping unit in Egypt and Europe, later in the Mandate survey service, and fought in the War of Independence.

After the war he founded the first geography department in the country, at the Hebrew University, and headed it for many years. He served as vice president of the university and as first president of the Israel Geographical Society from 1961 to 1977. He co-founded the Israel Exploration Journal and headed the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies from 1978 to 1984.

His research covered geomorphology, cartography, climate, settlement and regional development in arid areas. He was married to the archaeologist Ruth Amiran, who won the Israel Prize in 1982. He died in 2003.