לזכר פרופ' מריאן אמיר - In Memory of Prof. Marianne Amir

Professor Marianne Amir, staff member of Ben-Gurion University’s Behavioral Science and Social Work Departments, was born only fifty-three years ago in Denmark and died of cancer on January 7, 2004. Professor Amir left behind a husband, two sons, numerous friends, students, colleagues and admirers. As a leading researcher (both in Israel and worldwide) in the fields of trauma, posttraumatic disorder and quality of life, Marianne served as a member of the World Health Organization. Professor Amir contributed in a unique way to understanding the connection between trauma, psychological symptoms of distress, post-traumatic growth and quality of life among diverse population groups such as Holocaust survivors, former army soldiers, cancer and fibromyalgia patients, disabled invalids, and casualties of violence. As a researcher, Marianne won research grants from prestigious foundations. As a lecturer she was admired by her students for her knowledge, her humor and the importance she placed on advancing the next generation of researchers, as well as for using her own personal experiences as the basis for a study on how society responds to, and copes with, terminally ill individuals in their midst. Marianne documented her own coping process with the hope that this would be used by her fellow lecturers as a teaching aid.