Born 1927 in Tel-Aviv. Received Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in 1958. 
Founded the Department of Ornamental Horticulture at the Hebrew University in 1964 
and served as the Head of Department for 21 years, until 1985. 

Nominated Full Professor in Horticulture and Plant Physiology in 1970, and Wolfsan Chair in 1982. 
Served as a Research Fellow at Plant Industry Station,  Beltsville  USDA (1958-9) and as a Visiting Professor, Michigan State University (1964-5) and the University of California, Davis (1970-1, 1973, 1975-6, 1982-4, 1986-7, 1989, 1991-2). 

Nominated Fellow of the American Society of Horticultural Science in 1983. 
Volume 8 (1986) of the Horticultural Review was dedicated to him. 
Elected as a member in the Norwegian Academy of Science and letters in 1999. 
Founded the International Working Group on Flowering and its publication “Flowering Newsletter in 1986. 

Received the award “Realizer of Beautiful Israel” from the president of Israel in 1990. 
Israel Prize in Agriculture in 2002
Honorary Doctor of Science University of Waterloo, Canada 2003

Editor of several international journal in Horticulture and Plant Physiology. 
Over 350 publications in international refereed journals.

Representative Publications

Halevy, A.H. (ed.) (1985-1989). Handbook of Flowering. 6 Volumes. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Fl.
Halevy, A.H. Mayak, S. (1979, 1981). Senescence and postharvest physiology of cut  flowers. Post. Hort. Rev. Vol. 1 & 3;204-236.
Halevy, A.H. (2000) Introduction and development of new floriculture crops. In “recent advances in Floriculture” El. E. Stromme (in press).

Main research activities

As the founder of the department of Ornamental Horticulture in the Hebrew University, I devoted a great deal of research on all aspects of growth, development and physiology of  many florist crops as a basic for the development and advancement of the floriculture industry in Israel. The interest in advancing floriculture leads to concentrating in 3 major fundamental lines on research, for which our group is considered as one of the leading in the world (see the 3 representative publications):

The physiology of flowering. We have studied the flowering physiology of many crops and developed ways to control and time their flowering. We have demonstrated the involvement of cytosolic calcium and pH in the photoperiodic induction of flowering, in addition to the effect of auxin, gibberellin and carbohydrates. The six-volume book “Handbook of Flowering” is the most comprehensive treatise published to date on flowering. We have recently started working on the second edition of the book.

Senescence and postharvest physiology of flowering. We have evaluated the physiological and molecular background of flower senescence, including the involvement of flower hormones, carbohydrates and water supply. We have emphasized the importance  of the sensitivity to ethylene as a major factor controlling senescence of several flowers. We have published the first comprehensive review on this subject (1979, 1981), and started working on an updated version of this review, which is still the only comprehensive review available. In the course of work on the subject, we have developed specific original techniques for handling the various cut features, which are new applied commercially in Israel and abroad.

Development of new floriculture crops. Novelty is an important quality parameter of floriculture. It is important to introduce and develop new crops. Some of the plants will have introduced and developed became major commercial crops such as Gypsophila and wax flower (Chanacleucium). We are currently working on introduction of several crops including peony and rice flower. Developing a new crop involves many research aspects from the search of plant material, selection, propagation, growth and flowering control to postharvest handling and marketing.