Gerstel, Dan U.

Cytogeneticist Dan U. Gerstel, Ph.D., served as a professor of crop science at North Carolina State University, 1950-1980. He specialized in the study of tobacco and cotton.

Cytogeneticist Dan U. Gerstel, Ph.D., served as a professor of crop science at North Carolina State University, 1950 - 1980. He specialized in the study of tobacco and cotton.

Son of Else and Dr. Alfred Gerstel, Dan Gerstel was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1915. His father served as the President of the Prussian Supreme Court, where he was known for his contributions to labor law. Gerstel's mother was among the first women in Germany to study for a doctorate. When Hitler came to power, Gerstel fled to Palestine where he worked on a kibbutz.

It was in Palestine that Gerstel met his wife, Eva. Dan Gerstel performed all the duties required of kibbutz residents and developed an interest in agriculture. In 1938 his bent for agriculture led him to study genetics at the University of California, Berkley, where he earned a Ph.D. In 1950 Gerstel joined the faculty of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University). Over the course of his career he published nearly a hundred papers and received numerous acknowledgements for his teaching and research including the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professorship in Agronomy and Genetics.

Gerstel witnessed and participated in the evolution of the State of Israel as he returned numerous times to the Middle East, and worked in the genetics department of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Mekhon Vaitsman le-mada) in Rehovot, Israel. Dan and Eva Gerstel had two children, David and Naomi. Dan U. Gerstel died on June 8, 2003, at the age of 88.