Hillel I. Shuval

Distinguished Departed Pioneer

Professional background

Hillel Isaiah Shuval (1926 – 2013) was born in Washington DC, USA. After completing his undergraduate studies in Sanitary and Water Resources Engineering at the Universities of Cornell and Missouri, he settled in the newborn Israel in 1948. In 1952, he completed his Environmental Health Engineering and Public Health graduate studies at the University of Michigan. 

From 1958, he served as Director of Environmental Health in the Israel Ministry of Health, and in 1965, he joined the Hebrew University as Director of the Environmental Health Laboratory and later founded and led the Division of Environmental Sciences through 1988.  From 1995, he chaired the Environmental Health Sciences Department, the Hadassah Academic College. He was also a senior consultant to the World Bank, WHO, UNEP, and the EU.  

Shuval’s research included the control of water-borne enteric viruses; microbiological and epidemiological aspects of marine pollution; health effects of nitrates; and the kinetics of bacteria and viruses in soil, on crops and in air-borne aerosols exposed to wastewater irrigation.  Shuval initiated and led Israel’s environmental health and preventive medicine programs, guidelines and standards in parallel to his research. He was a prominent voice in the numerous aspects of the Middle East water conflicts, and co-edited “Water and Peace in the Middle East” in 1994.  

Major contributions to IWA

Hillel Shuval was active in various international organizations; the International Association of Water Pollution Research (IAWPR) was his favourite. He was of IAWPR’s founders in 1965 and served Vice President 1968-1976.  He was Congress President of the highly regarded 1972 IAWPR Jerusalem World Congress. 

Later, he served on the IAWPR Expert Advisory Panel on Water Quality Standards and Biological and Chemical Methodology.  The WHO recognized his innovative research in developing the 2005 WHO health guidelines for wastewater reuse in agriculture. 

Author:  Avner Adin

Major Contributors: Geula Sharf, Paul D Reiter