Abraham B Korol

Abraham Bentsionovich Korol (born October 18, 1946) is a professor in the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa. He is a prominent Israeli geneticist and evolutionary biologist known for his work on the evolution of sex and recombination, genome mapping and the genetics of complex traits. Korol was born in Bendery city, Moldavia (now Moldova), then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel in 1991. Before immigrating to Israel, Korol was appointed in 1981 as a senior researcher and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the Presidium of Academy of Science USSR in 1988, and became a full professor in 1991. After immigrating to Israel in 1991, Korol has established and headed the Laboratory of Population Genetics and Computational Biology in the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa. He became full professor there in 1996 and served as the director of the Institute of Evolution between 2008-2013. Since 1994, Korol has filled many scholarly positions including member of the steering committee of Israeli Gene Bank; member of the Human Genome Organization; member of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology; a member of the Coordinating Committee of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium; member of the Infrastructure Steering Committee of the Israeli Ministry of Science; representative of Haifa University in the Kamea program steering committee (alef and bet); member of the Advisory Committee of Absorption in Science of the Israeli Ministry of Absorption.

Korol was born in Moldova in 1946. Since childhood, Korol was passionate with classical music. His favorite compositor is Johann Sebastian Bach and violin is his favorite instrument. In 1971 Korol graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic University and received his master in computer science, followed by a doctorate in genetics from the Institute of General Genetics, USSR Academy of Science, Moscow under the supervision of Prof. A.A. Zhuchenko.

Immigration to Israel was always an aspiration in Korol's family, leading his uncle to immigrate to Palestine in the 1930s. Nevertheless, immigration restrictions in the USSR prevented Korol from immigrating until the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Korol was eager to continue his research and has contacted different institutes in Israel. He eventually accepted the invitation from the head of the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa, Prof. Eviatar Nevo, and established his new lab in 1991