David Ginsburg

David Ginsburg was born in 1920 in New York City

David Ginsburg was born in New York City in 1920. His father was the poet and writer Shimon Ginsburg. As a child he moved to the Land of Israel and attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv from 1933 to 1937.

He began studies at the Hebrew University but returned to New York. He earned a bachelor's degree from City College of New York in 1941 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1942. In 1947 he completed a doctorate in chemistry at New York University.

He returned to Israel and worked as a researcher at the Weizmann Institute. In 1954 he became a professor of chemistry at the Technion. There he served as vice president for research, acting president, dean of students and vice president for development.

His research covered the total synthesis of morphine, the structure of natural products and the biosynthesis of alkaloids. He took part in the first studies of propellanes and wrote books on opium alkaloids and propellanes. He was a visiting professor at Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and other institutions, and headed the Israel Chemical Society.

He was married to Hemda and had 2 daughters. He lived in Haifa, died in 1988 and was buried in Rehovot.