Yehudith Birk

Yehudith Birk was born in 1926 in Grajewo

Yehudith Gershtanski was born in 1926 in Grajewo, Poland. Her parents were Zionist activists, and the family moved to Tel Aviv in 1935. She attended the school for workers' children there.

She studied biochemistry and microbiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed her master's degree in 1950. She then earned a doctorate in biochemistry at the university's Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot. Around 1948 she married physicist Meir Birk, and they had 2 sons.

From 1948 to 1949 she served in the IDF science corps. She worked on developing and testing illumination flares.

She began teaching at the Faculty of Agriculture in 1956 and later became a full professor. In 1972 she founded the school of nutrition science, and from 1977 she served as dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. She identified a protease inhibitor found in legume seeds, later named the Bowman-Birk inhibitor, and helped characterize the hormone beta-lipotropin.

She served as Pro-Rector of the Hebrew University and joined the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1993. She died in Rehovot in 2013.