Author: Jim Giovannoni

Haim obtained his academic education in plant physiology and genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He worked as a Postdoctoral Scientist at The John Innes Institute (Norwich England) and at the Wageningen Agricultural University (Holland) before recruited as a staff member at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spent three sabbaticals at Duke University Medical Centre, Department of Biochemistry. In addition to research, teaching, and supervision, Haim served as elected Head of the Department of Field and Vegetable Crops, elected Head of Faculty Research Committee, elected Faculty Dean and elected University Rector. His research interests include physiology of vegetable crops with special emphasis on flowering, setting and seed production; Physiology and potato breeding. Haim shared the idea and actual introduction of genes for long keeping in tomatoes, the development and introduction of cherry tomatoes as a standard commodity, and later that of cluster tomatoes. He headed a leading ream of plant breeders and released more than a hundred salad and cherry tomato hybrids, as well as short-day onion hybrids, short day seed propagated shallot hybrids, and currently he jointly leads a large-scale garlic breeding program aiming at seed propagated hybrid garlic. He supervised about 80 graduate students, published about 150 scientific papers, chapters in books and edited books on alliums.