Leo Picard (Hebrew: יהודה ליאו פיקרד, 3 June 1900 – 4 April 1997), was an Israeli geologist and an expert in the field of hydrogeology.
Yehuda Leo Picard was born in Germany in 1900, and studied at universities in Freiburg and Berlin, in Germany, and in Paris and London, and taught at the University of Florence, Italy.
Picard visited Mandate Palestine in 1922 and emigrated there in 1924, where he established the Department of Geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1943, he published his book "Structure and Evolution of Palestine", which became a primary book for the study of geology in Israel.
Leo Picard was an expert hydrogeologist and an outstanding general geologist. He wrote about paleontology and stratigraphy, structural geology and tectonics, mineralogy and ore deposits. Well-known is his contribution to the debate on the tectonics of the Dead Sea Rift. Picard was doubtful whether left-lateral offset of some 100 km took place along the Rift, and suggested instead that the rift was developed and constrained by extension.
In 1955, he was appointed president of the UNESCO committee of experts for arid areas. Following such appointment, he became an international consultant, and his investigations have assisted the development of many countries in Africa and Latin America.
He died in 1997 in Kibbutz Ginegar in northern Israel.
| International |
|
|---|---|
| National |
|
| Academics |
|
| People |
|
| Other |
|
