AVIV, HAIM

AVIV, HAIM (Greenshpan; 1940– ), Israeli scientist. Aviv was born in Arad, Romania, and immigrated to Israel at the age of ten. He received his B.Sc. (1962) and M.Sc. (1965) in agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot (1970). His work as a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (1970–73) and at Weizmann (1973–80) led to the introduction of new probes for isolating genes and their cloning. This work has had important applications in the study of gene regulation and recombinant DNA technology. Aviv is prominent in Israel's biotechnology industry and academic biotechnology institutions, including Ben-Gurion University, as a board member, and Yeda, the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute; he has served as chairman of Israel's National Biotechnology Committee and other public functions in the bio arena in Israel and is a recipient of the Israel Biochemistry Society Prize. Aviv is a scholar in Judaic studies and ethical issues in the life sciences. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)