Avishag Zahavi
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Amotz_and_Avishag_Zahavi_at_Hatzeva.jpg/220px-Amotz_and_Avishag_Zahavi_at_Hatzeva.jpg)
Avishag Kadman-Zahavi ( Hebrew אבישג זהבי; * 1922 in Haifa ) was Professor of Plant Physiology at the Volcani Center for Agricultural Research in Bet-Dagan, Israel , from 1969 to 1988 . Together with her husband, Prof. Amotz Zahavi , she became internationally known through the so-called handicap principle - this is a sociobiological theory of evolution , with the help of which it can be explained why behaviors and physical characteristics could develop in the process of evolution, which at first glance seem to reduce the fitness of individuals. Such characteristics were interpreted as expressions of fitness .
She met her future husband at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and married in 1954. Despite the close collaboration with her husband in researching the social behavior of gray thrushes ( Turdoides squamiceps , in English: Arabian Babbler ), she also always researched the influences of light on the development of plants, especially photoperiodism , the phythochrome system and photomorphogenesis . After her retirement , Avishag Kadman-Zahavi continued her studies at the Yair Center for Agricultural Research in Hatzeva .
Avishag and Amotz Zahavi have two daughters and two grandchildren.
literature
- Amotz Zahavi , Avishag Zahavi: Signals of Understanding. The handicap principle. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-458-16927-X
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Zahavi, Avishag |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Avishag Kadman-Zahavi |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Israeli plant physiologist and evolution theorist |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1922 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Haifa |