OBITUARIES

Eitan Harel

Professor Eitan Harel, of the Department of Plant Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and longtime member of the American Society of Plant Biologists, died of cancer on June 4 at age 66 at his home in Jerusalem with his wife and three sons, Amnon, Amos, and Uri, around him.

After obtaining his Ph.D. at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1966, working on catechol oxidases with Professor A. M. Meyer, Eitan and his wife, Dr. Shulamith Harel, did postdoctoral work first at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, then at Harvard University. At Harvard, Eitan worked with Professor Lawrence Bogorad, where he began his pioneering work on characterizing the processes involved in the development of chloroplasts. Even before the techniques of molecular biology were available for such studies, he was able to characterize light-induced changes in RNA and protein synthesis by looking at changes in the incorporation of radioactive precursors (Harel and Bogorad [1973] Plant Physiol. 51: 10–16; Kaveh and Harel [1973] Plant Physiol. 51: 671–676). He also examined changes in chlorophyll synthesis and development of plastid structure during the early stages of greening of etiolated maize seedlings (Klein et al. [1975] Plant Physiol. 56: 486–496; Fluhr et al. [1975] Plant Physiol. 56: 497–501).

I first came to know him when he was at Harvard, while I was a graduate student with Professor Winslow Briggs, in whose laboratory Shula was doing her postdoctoral work. I remember him talking back then not just about our current research but also about ubiquitin and how it must be important for many aspects of plant development and that it really needed to be investigated, a prediction that today, 35 years later, seems prescient. Even more important for me, getting to know their charming oldest son, Amnon, who was then four years old, helped confirm my own desire for children and helped me see that I could be both a scientist and a parent. Eitan’s enjoyment of science and of his own family, particularly of his five grandchildren, continued for the rest of his life.

Eitan returned in 1968 to a faculty position at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and continued to contribute to our understanding of chlorophyll synthesis and the development of chloroplasts over his entire career. He spent fruitful sabbaticals at Rothamsted Experimental Station in England (1975); the Carlsberg Research Laboratories in Denmark (1979); Cornell University (1993); and at UCLA in 1984, 1992, and 1999, working with my group and with Philip Thornber’s. He was an influential mentor as well as a colleague for our graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. It was a particular pleasure to see his interactions with the many lab members from other countries whose appreciation of Western culture he engendered simply in the name of friendship and by sharing his enthusiasm for books and music. A casual gift of a book of poetry to one of my foreign-born graduate students created, by her account, a lifelong fan of Dylan Thomas and of Eitan himself. His abilities and energy at the laboratory bench seemed to increase rather than decrease with age, and he made important contributions to our laboratories’ understanding of the synthesis and assembly of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b proteins into the light-harvesting complex associated with photosystem II and to the discovery of the role of the transcription factor CCA1 in phytochrome regulation of transcription of Lhcb genes and ultimately its role as part of the central oscillator for the circadian rhythms of plants.

Eitan was also an expert in both art and classical music. He managed to complete the equivalent of an M.A. in art during his time on the faculty, and he supplemented that with onsite study at the great museums of the world. My husband Philip and I were able to visit many different museums with him, and the way in which he enhanced our enjoyment (and knowledge) of what we viewed is something that I feel was a privilege. I still remember with pleasure his detailed “instructions” on how to see everything of artistic importance in Florence, including the (at that time) recently cleaned frescos by Masaccio in a small church that was open for viewing only a few hours each week.

Eitan was born in Tel Aviv but lived in Jerusalem for most of his life, and he knew it so well that he was an extraordinary guide to the city and its history. He was also active in Peace Now, an activist group struggling to help find a way to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors. With his death I think that plant biologists and humanity as a whole have lost an exceptional human presence.

Professor Elaine Tobin
Department of M.C.D. Biology
University of California, Los Angeles