Aviva E. Gileadi (In Hebrew: אביבה גלעדי, born Eva Fischmann November 26, 1917 – June 8, 2001) was an Israeli nuclear scientist, a professor at the Israel Institute of Technology ( Technion) in the department of Nuclear Engineering. She was a specialist in the use of

Nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

s for energy production and

Desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...

. She was the first woman in the

Western Bloc The Western Bloc, also known as the Free Bloc, the Capitalist Bloc, the American Bloc, and the NATO Bloc, was a coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. It was spearheaded by ...

to receive a license for the operation of a nuclear reactor and the only one with such a license in 1963. pg. 42 (In Hebrew)

Biography

Eva Fischmann was born on November 26, 1917, in Budapest, Hungary, to Samuel Fischmann and Gizella (née Kupferstein). She studied at the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

where she received her PhD. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was sent to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. She was later deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, but managed to escape and hide until the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

arrived in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

in January 1945. In 1946, she moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where she met and married Michael Gileadi, who was her second husband and worked as a

radiographer Radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, diagnostic radiographers and medical radiation technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Radi ...

. In 1948 she emigrated to Israel, where she changed her name to Aviva. Aviva Gileadi taught at the high school of

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Givat HaShlosha Givat HaShlosha ( he, גִּבְעַת הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה, ''lit.'' Hill of the three) is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located about 4 km east of Petah Tikva, near the Yarkon river, it falls under the jurisdiction of Drom Hasharon R ...

and also worked for a time at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

. In 1955, Gileadi moved to

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, and started working at the Technion, initially at the Department of Physics, and in 1958, upon the founding of the Department of

Nuclear Engineering Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of breaking down atomic nuclei ( fission) or of combining atomic nuclei (fusion), or with the application of other sub-atomic processes based on the principles of n ...

, she became a professor in that department. In 1960, she won a scholarship to study for a year at the

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...

, and to research for a semester at the department of Nuclear Physics at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. (In Hebrew) When the scholarship came to an end, she accepted an offer of another year to earn a degree in Nuclear sciences. During that time she enrolled on a course for operating nuclear reactors and she received an operator licence. Newspapers in 1963 claimed that Gileadi was the only woman in the

western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

to hold such a license. In 1965 Gileadi was invited by the US government to assist in activating the

Boiling Nuclear Superheater (BONUS) Reactor Facility The Boiling Nuclear Superheater (BONUS) Reactor Facility, also known to the locals as "Domes", or formally as Museo Tecnologico BONUS Dr. Modesto Iriarte, is a decommissioned nuclear plant in Rincón, Puerto Rico. It was listed on the U.S. Nation ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. As part of her job, she instructed a team of engineers in the operation the nuclear reactor. In addition, she taught a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

class in Nuclear Engineering. Gileadi died in 2001, in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

Personal life

Gileadi was married twice. She married Hungarian mathematician and teacher Ivan Seres (1907–1966). Before emigrating to Israel, she divorced Seres. In Israel, she married Michael Gileadi, an X-Ray technician originally from Poland. They had two children.

Selected publications

* Gileadi, Michael, and Aviva E. Gileadi. "Collimation in Reducing Male Gonadal Doses in Puerto Rico-1968". ''Health Physics'' 25.1 (1973): 43–49. * Aviva E. Gileadi and Wilson K. Talley, "Nuclear Excavation of a Sea-Level Isthmian Canal", ''Journal of the Waterways and Harbors Division'', 1969, Vol. 95, Issue 3, pp. 329–336 * Gileadi, Aviva E., and Fernando López Carrasco. "Determination of the transfer function and certain kinetics parameters of the L-77 reactor". Puerto Rico Nuclear Center, 1968.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gileadi, Aviva American women scientists Israeli women scientists 1917 births Academic staff of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Israeli nuclear physicists Women nuclear physicists Pages with unreviewed translations University of Michigan alumni 2001 deaths 20th-century American women 20th-century American people American women academics Hungarian emigrants to Israel Israeli emigrants to the United States