Dr. Gad Avigad (z”l), an Israeli American biochemist, endowed the Gad Avigad Chair in Biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem through a $1.5 million legacy gift. The gift was commemorated during a ceremony at the 89th Board of Governors Meeting on October 20 in Jerusalem, Israel.
Avigad was inscribed on the Hebrew University Wall for Endowed Chairs and Lectureships, which honors individuals who fund specific academic positions, fellowships, or research.
Professor Danny Ben-Zvi holds the Gad Avigad Chair in Biochemistry at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine. He is also a Professor and Vice Dean for External Relations and Science at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, as well as Co-Director of the Center for Computational Medicine. In the Ben-Zvi Lab, he studies fundamental questions in endocrinology, metabolism, and metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. His research aims to deepen our understanding of normal physiological processes and apply these insights to the study and treatment of disease.
“It is a great honor to visit Hebrew University, where both my father and grandfather were professors and researchers who helped the State of Israel thrive in its earliest days,” said Rachel Avigad, who attended the ceremony. “This legacy endowment is a meaningful way to perpetuate his memory and support Israel’s preeminent university.”
Dr. Gad Avigad (1930–2025) specialized in sugar biochemistry and carbohydrate metabolism. An accomplished researcher, he published over 100 papers and held one patent. In 1967, he moved from Israel to the United States, where he became a professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In a separate, earlier gift, Avigad endowed the Nahman Avigad Chair in Biblical Archaeology, named in honor of his father, Nahman Avigad, one of the pioneers of biblical archaeology in modern Israel. Following the Six-Day War, Nahman Avigad’s excavations in Jerusalem revealed much of the history of the Jewish Quarter from the Second Temple and Byzantine periods. He also interpreted one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and excavated at Masada and Beit She’arim, among other sites.
In 1957, Gad Avigad received the Israel Prize—often considered the highest honor awarded by the State of Israel—in Exact Sciences. He then earned his doctorate from the Hebrew University in 1958 and later became a professor of biochemistry there.