KARPLUS, HEINRICH

KARPLUS, HEINRICH (1905–1988), Israeli pathologist and founder of forensic medicine in Israel. Born in Vienna, he was the son of Johan Paul Karplus, known Viennese experimental neurophysiologist. Karplus graduated from the medical faculty of Vienna in 1930 and was a pupil of the Jewish pathologist Jakob Erdheim. He established the Institute of Pathology   at the Hadassah Tel Aviv Municipal Hospital and directed it from 1936 to 1945, and became involved in forensic medicine. Trained in forensic medicine at Stockholm University (1945–49), he returned to Israel as advisor to the IDF and director of the department of pathology of the newly established Tel Hashomer army hospital. He established and directed the National Leopold Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu-Kabir from 1955 to 1974. He was known for his academic independence and uncompromising adherence to truth and moral principles. He initiated the first regional Traumatology CPC conferences in 1966 which improved the care of patients with multiple injuries. He was professor of forensic medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Tel Aviv University, and educated generations of physicians, lawyers, and criminologists. After his retirement he devoted himself to the study of ethics and the history of medicine. (Bracha Rager (2nd ed.)