Naomi Feinbrun Dothan ^People

The family lived in Chisināu, Bessarabia. She went to an elementary school where she was taught Hebrew and a Jewish girls' high school in Chisinäu. In 1926, she attended the Institute of Agriculture and Natural History in Tel Aviv, (which was directed by Otto Warburg).She then accepted the part-time post of guest researcher. In 1938, she received her Ph.D. degree, but was promoted from instructor to lecturer eventually in 1952. She devoted her full attention to the study of local and Middle Eastern species, mostly grown in her experimental plots and investigated cytotaxonomically (a branch of tax- onomy in which chromosome characteristics are used to classify organisms).In 1953, Feinbrun spent a sabbatical year at the herbarium at Kew Gardens in London and also the herbaria of Edinburgh and Geneva. In 1960, she became an associate professor of the University. She joined Elisabeth Oldschmidt, Ischarna Rayss and Hanna Rozin (in various fields of biology and medicine), who were the only three women of that rank in the University.She studied the flora of Israel and published dozens of articles and several ana- lytical flora books. Just after her 91st birthday, she received the 1991 Israel Prize for her unique contribution to the Land of Israel studies. She is the botanical author of Allium truncatum, Allium dumetorum, and Iris regis-uzziae.