Dr. Moshe Agami

Dr. Moshe Agami served as the Director of the Botanic Garden from 1989 to 2002.

Moshe Agami was born in Baghdad on January 5, 1946, and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at the age of five and a half. His family initially lived in the Ma'abarot (immigrant transit camps) of Kfar Saba and Kfar Nachman in Ra'anana, before settling in the Neve Ne'eman neighborhood of Hod HaSharon in 1954.

Academic Background and Research

Dr. Agami earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1970. He then moved to Tel Aviv University for his Master’s degree, where his research examined the impact of pollution in the Alexander and Yarkon rivers on local flora. He continued at TAU for his doctoral studies, completing his PhD in 1982 on the autecology of the Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima).

Following his doctorate, he spent three years at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University in Sde Boker. In 1987, he moved to the University of Florida, USA, where he spent two years researching the capacity of aquatic plants to purify contaminated water. He returned to Tel Aviv University’s Department of Botany in 1989 to assume the directorship of the Botanic Gardens, a role he held for 13 years. Subsequently, he served for five years as an ecologist at TAU’s Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement, studying wild wheat and its relatives in the Ami'ad region.

Ecology and Conservation

Throughout his career, Dr. Agami's research focused on the ecology and ecophysiology of aquatic plants, as well as their application in wastewater treatment. A significant portion of his work was dedicated to endangered species; he was instrumental in establishing a "Refuge Garden" within the Tel Aviv University Botanic Gardens. This facility was designed to study rare plants and prepare them for reintroduction to their original habitats, such as the upper Yarkon River and the Hula Nature Reserve.

In the Negev, his research focused on the biology and ecology of desert plants and their adaptations to unpredictable habitat conditions. Across all his fields of study, he investigated biological interactions, including interspecies competition.

Dr. Agami co-authored three books and published numerous research articles in international botanical and ecological journals. Over the decades, he mentored many graduate students and taught courses on phytogeography, ecology, plant adaptations, climatology, and global vegetation belts.

Expeditions and Public Outreach

Parallel to his academic work, Dr. Agami has been a prominent naturalist guide since 1972. He has introduced thousands of nature enthusiasts to the wonders of the world through more than 200 expeditions across all seven continents.

His specialized maritime expeditions have covered:

• The Russian Far East: The Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, Chukotka, and Wrangel Island.
• Melanesia: Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
• The Polar Regions: Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands, the Sub-Antarctic Islands of New Zealand, the Ross Sea, Greenland, and Svalbard.
• Tropical Islands: The Galápagos, the Seychelles (including Aldabra), and the British Isles.

He has shared the insights and impressions gathered from these global journeys through his university courses and numerous public lectures.