HALEVY, ABRAHAM H.

HALEVY, ABRAHAM H. (1927– ), Israeli botanist. Halevy, a 10^th-generation Israeli, was born in Tel Aviv and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in biology and agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After receiving his Ph.D. at the university in 1958, he went on to teach there, establishing the Department of Ornamental Horticulture in 1964 and serving as its chairman until 1985. He became a full professor in 1970 and was named Wolfson Family Professor of Ornamental Horticulture in 1982. He retired officially in 1995 but continued his research and supervision of doctoral and postdoctoral candidates as professor emeritus.

Halevy was a research fellow at the Plant Industry Station in Beltsville, Maryland, and served as visiting professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing and, on a regular basis, at the University of California at Davis. He is a renowned international expert on floriculture and horticulture. His research has contributed significantly to the advancement of commercial floriculture in Israel and throughout the world. The department he founded and developed has long been considered one of the leading horticultural research and teaching groups in the world. The research has centered on the growth, development, and physiology of florist crops, with specific interest in the physiology of flowering (including the development of ways to control and time flowering), senescence and post-harvest physiology of flowering, and the development of new floriculture crops.

Halevy was named a fellow of the American Society of Horticultural Science in 1983. In 1986 he founded the International Working Group on Flowering and its publication, Flowering Newsletter, and in 1999 he was elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

He received numerous citations and awards during his career. In 1990 the president of Israel honored him with the title "Maker of a Beautiful Israel." He was also the recipient of the Israel Prize for agriculture (2002). He was a prolific writer, with over 350 publications appearing in international refereed journals. His six-volume Handbook of Flowering is considered the most comprehensive treatise published to date on the topic.

[Ruth Rossing (2^nd ed.)]