Professor Shraga Segal was born in Poland in 1939 and survived the Holocaust thanks to his parents’ deportation by the Russians to Arkhangelsk in the Arctic Circle. The family immigrated to Israel in 1949. Upon completion of his military service, Professor Segal studied microbiology at Bar-Ilan University, and then went on to earn a doctorate from the Weizmann Institute, followed by post-doctoral work at Johns Hopkins and Stanford.
Professor Segal was one of the founders of the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU, which he joined in 1975. There, he founded and served for many years as the head of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology. He also played a key role in establishing the Faculty’s Basic Sciences Division, chairing the Division between the years 1981-1984, and enlisting many capable researchers.
Although not a medical doctor, Professor Segal served as Dean of the FOHS (1994-2000), and as vice-rector of the University. During his tenure as Dean, the School of Laboratory Sciences, the Emergency Medicine Department, the School for International Medicine in collaboration with Columbia University, and the Master’s program in Public Health were all established. He also initiated the plans for a School of Pharmacy.
Professor Segal was a world renowned researcher in cancer studies, publishing over 200 articles in prestigious professional journals. His contribution to the IDF Armored Corps as a colonel (res.) was substantial and he continued to volunteer as reservist tank company commander up until his sudden and untimely death from heart failure in 2006, at the age of 67.
