Heinz Steinitz

Heinz Steinitz, 1957

Georg Haas (left), Elisheva Goldshmit ( middle ) and Heinz Steinitz (right), 1955

Heinz Sigismund Steinitz (born April 26, 1909 in Breslau ; † April 28, 1971 in Jerusalem ) was an Israeli marine biologist and ichthyologist of German-Jewish descent.

Live and act

Steinitz was the son of the hydrologist and zoologist Walter Steinitz (1882–1963). Like his father, he studied medicine but did not obtain a doctorate. In early 1933 he married Ruth Aber (1907–1995), whom he had met during his studies and who later became a renowned cancer researcher in Israel . From this marriage three sons were born. Soon after, Steinitz and his family moved to Palestine , where he was not allowed to practice because he did not have a doctorate. He then devoted himself to studying zoology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . In 1938 he was the first student to earn a Ph.D. in zoology and one of the first Israelis to receive a scholarship from Yale University . Despite his dissertation on scale insects on citrus plants , he did not turn to entomology , but, like his father, to ichthyology and history. In 1957 Steinitz became a lecturer in vertebrate zoology and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1968 he was qualified as a professor. In addition, he was chairman of the zoological department for several years. His seminars included zoogeography and special topics in zoology.

In 1953 Steinitz was one of the founders of the Zoological Society of Israel. Together with the late Professor S. Adler, he was a founding member and sponsor of the Fauna-Palestine Commission of the Israel Academy of Sciences in 1965 . Steinitz conducted research on several fish families, including Blenniidae , Cichlidae and Cyprinodontidae . He introduced his students to the fields of fish physiology and endocrinology . After his death, the university acquired an impressive collection of fish that is a fundamental testimony to the ichthyofauna of the Middle East, and the Red Sea in particular .

Steinitz organized his expeditions in the tradition of earlier generations. Between 1938 and 1940 he took part in an expedition to the Chula plain . In 1962 he was the scientific coordinator in a multidisciplinary attempt to explore the Sea of ​​Galilee. Above all, Steinitz was fascinated by the sea. After Israel gained independence in 1948, Steinitz began his research at Eilat on the Red Sea, where he was initially only able to work under primitive conditions and with considerable difficulties. Steinitz's former assistants during his studies in the Red Sea later became directors of the Tel Aviv School of Zoologists. The Eilat Marine Biology Laboratory was founded in 1968 and renamed the Heinz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory in 1972.

In 1956 Steinitz undertook an expedition to the coast of the Sinai Peninsula and in 1962 he led the first Israeli research team to the Dahlak Archipelago .

Steinitz was editor of the Bulletin of the Sea Fisheries Research Station in Haifa . He has also published the series Contributions to the Knowledge of the Red Sea , Israel South Red Sea Expedition Scientific Reports , Contributions to the Knowledge of Lake Tiberias . Together with OH Oren he published the works Regional Bibliography of the Mediterranean coast of Israel and the adjacent Levant countries and Bibliography on Lake Kinnereth (Lake Tiberias) . A monograph planned by Steinitz on the southern water fish of Palestine remained unfinished.

Steinitz published 53 specialist articles, including the first scientific descriptions of the Kinneret sardine ( Acanthobrama terraesanctae ), in collaboration with Henry Weed Fowler on Garra barreimiae and the genus Papilloculiceps , in collaboration with Adam Ben-Tuvia on Tristramella sacra intermedia and in collaboration with Heinrich Mendelssohn for Israeli disc beater ( Latonia nigriventer ).

Dedication names

In 1997, a previously unknown species of tree frog was discovered in the Mamilla Reservoir in the old city of Jerusalem. The research team around Yehudah L. Werner named the new species Hyla heinzsteinitzi in honor of Steinitz. The fish species Tylognathus steinitziorum (named in 1950 by Curt Kosswig and today a synonym for Hemigrammocapoeta nana ) was dedicated to Heinz Steinitz and his father Walter.

Other fish species and subspecies named after Heinz Steinitz are Rubratella steinitzi (Pawlowski & Lee, 1991), Hydroides steinitzi (Ben-Eliahu, 1972), Bohadschia steinitzi (Cherbonnier, 1963), Typhlocirolana steinitzi (Strouhal, 1961), Aphanogmus steinitzi (Priesner, 1936), Elasmopus steinitzi (Ruffo, 1959), Pseudocyclops steinitzi (Por, 1968), Albunea steinitzi (Holthuis, 1958), Istiblennius steinitzi (Lotan, 1969), Scorpaenodes steinitzi (Klausewitz & Frøiland, 1970), Gammogobius steinitzi (Bath, 1971), Photoblepharon palpebratum steinitzi (Abe & Haneda, 1973), Cryptocentrus steinitzi (Klausewitz, 1974), Omobranchus steinitzi (Springer & Gomon, 1975), Cocotropus steinitzi (Eschmeyer & Dor, 1978) and Helcogramma steinitzi ( Clark, 1980).

literature

• FD Por: Heinz Steinitz in Memoriam (April 26, 1909 to April 28, 1971) In: Marine Biology 19 (4). Springer Verlag, 1973, pp. 271-272 doi : 10.1007 / BF00348892

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} F. D. Por: Heinz Steinitz in Memoriam (April 26, 1909 to April 28, 1971) In: Marine Biology 19 (4). Springer Verlag, 1973, pp. 271-272 doi : 10.1007 / BF00348892
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Renate Steinitz: A German Jewish family is destroyed. The story of a Steinitz branch. , 2008, pp. 56-58
3. ^ ^{A b} Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names. ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.