|
|
|
|
|
 |
Researchers: Daniel Hillel, Ph.D.
Office Address: See also: Daniel Hillel's curriculum vitae Daniel Hillel is an international authority on sustainable management of land and water resources. Over the course of his long and active career — most recently as Senior Research Scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies of the Columbia Earth Institute and as Professor of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Massachusetts — Prof. Hillel has made an enduring and fundamental contribution to our understanding of soil and water as the keys to global environmental management. A world-renowned environmental scientist and hydrologist, Dr. Daniel Hillel has confronted environmental concerns with innovation, action, and creativity and in the process has ensured that our daily lives and the planet's safety are no longer at odds. Prof. Hillel has worked in over 30 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia. A major focus has been on the Middle East, where he served as a consultant to the governments of Israel, Pakistan, the Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, and elsewhere; and as advisor to the World Bank and to the United Nations. He brings first-hand experience, intimate knowledge, as well as deep insight to the region's environment and culture. His innovative techniques in soil and water management have ameliorated the daily lives of the rural citizens of these countries and of countries on all continents. His twenty-plus books include definitive works on arid-zone ecology, low-volume irrigation, and soil and water physics, which are widely adopted as standard texts in universities and research institutions around the world and which have been translated into at least thirteen languages. He has also authored books noted for their clarity and eloquence intended for general readers. The latter include the award-winning Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil; Rivers of Eden: The Struggle for Water and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East; and Negev: Land, Water, and Life in a Desert Environment. His latest book, The Natural History of the Bible, An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures, has just been published by Columbia University Press. Dr. Hillel has also published over 250 scientific papers and reports, as well as popular articles in Natural History Magazine and the National Geographic Society's Research and Exploration. Among the honors he has received are a Guggenheim Award and several honorary doctorates. He has been elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Soil Science Society of America, and the American Society of Agronomy; and was granted the Distinguished Service Award by the latter societies. He recently served as Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, published by Elsevier/Academic Press. Through this magnum opus, Daniel Hillel is reshaping the field of soil science from its roots in agriculture to its present status as a key knowledge system fundamental to all ecosystems, be they natural or human-managed. |
|