Dr. Racheli Einav
Dr'. Rachel Einav was born in Be'er Tuvia, from where she moved with her parents to Ramat Hasharon. Her military service was spent as a counselor at a field-school, which led to studies at the Department of Botany at Tel Aviv University. Under the guidance of Professor Yoav Wiesel, she wrote her Master’s thesis on coastal plants –The Distribution of Limonium Species (Limonium) along the Israeli Coast.
The period between her MA and the completion of her doctoral dissertation was devoted to raising a family, teaching, learning to scuba dive, touring the Sinai Peninsula and writing a children's book, Adventures with Plants.
Rachel's Doctoral thesis was devoted to Ecophysiology of Algae in the Intertidal Zone, a combination of field work and laboratory research under the guidance of Prof. Siegmar Breckle from the University of Bielefeld, Germany and Prof. Sven Beer from Tel Aviv University. She demonstrated that all the species investigated indeed adapted easily to their natural habitat, a finding that enabled her to obtain her degree with honors (magna cum laude).
After a brief sojourn at the Ecological R&D Department of Mayim VaYam – a joint venture of the Society for the Protection of Nature and Tel Aviv University, Einav continued her Post-Doctoral studies at Bar-Ilan University’s Life-Sciences department under the supervision of Professor Zvi Dubinsky. The product of the research was an illustrated plant-finder – Israel’s Coastal Seaweed, edited by Teva HaDvarim (the Nature of Things company) and published in 2004 by the Bar Ilan University Press. In 2007, the English version – The Seaweeds of the Eastern Mediterranean Coast – was published by Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Germany.
Rachel Einav’s company, Blue Ecosystems, deals in a variety of topics related to the environment and nature preservation. These include consulting clients and planners on how to prevent and minimize ecological damage based on development plans and resulting from marine installations. The company also represents clients before the authorities, and prepares environmental impact studies and sensitivity maps for open areas, master plans for treating agricultural waste and marine agriculture. Einav has dealt extensively with the environmental aspects of desalination plants, the natural gas project and the environmental impact of thermo-solar power plants for non-biodegradable electrical production.
Einav also promotes the use of algae in other areas. One product of her interest is a book she co-wrote with Chef Itzhak Nathan Levy – a cookbook for using algae in Mediterranean-style dishes. Seaweed in Olive Oil – Algae & Seaweed in the Mediterranean Kitchen was designed by Shir Ran and published by Teva HaDvarim (2007). It was preceded by a television series broadcast on the Teva HaDvarim television channel.
From algae, it was a short hop to a survey of wild plants used in Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, serialized monthly for the seventh year running by the Teva HaDvarim magazine and concentrating each month on another plant. A book about edible plants of the Middle East is ready and seeking a publisher.
Einav is also Assistant Editor-in-Chief at Teva HaDvarim and a Field Editor for Asian Geographic.
In her spare time, Rachel Einav rows kayaks at the Optimist Club in Sdot Yam, and has taken part in several surf-ski competitions, including the EuroChallenge in Spain.
