Samuel Mandel: International Teacher of Hydrogeology

Abstract

Dr. Samuel Mandel, most recently a retired professor of hydrogeology from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was born in Austria in 1918. After completing high school, he studied chemistry atthe University ofVienna. In 1938, his studies were interrupted due to the annexation of Austria by Germany. He escaped from Austria and went to Palestine as an illegal immigrant, workipg as a labourer in the Dead Sea potash plant. During World War II, he joined the British Army and served in Lebanon, Egypt, and Greece. After the war, he studied physics and geology in Jerusalem and then specialized in hydrology at the University of Grenoble, France. In 1961, he receive a Ph.D. from the Israel Institute of Technology for his work on the Cenomanian-Turonian limestone aquifer of western Israel. Tahal Consulting Engineers, Ltd., employed Dr. Mandel as the chief of groundwater investigations and later as the head of the Department of Hydrological Research. During his years in Tahal, he worked in many developing countries in exploration, assessment, and utilization of groundwater for domestic and irrigation supplies. With this varied experience, in 1966 he joined the Ground Water Research Centre of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. When Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs started the UNESCO-sponsored "International PostGraduate Diploma Course in Groundwater" at the university in 1968, Prof. Mandel was appointed as the Course Director, a position that he held for more than 20 years. This course became very popular among mid-level hydrogeologists, especially those from developing countries. In 1969, I was fortunate to get admission to this course and to become one of Prof. Mandel's students. Prof. Mandel was a devoted field hydrogeologist and a great teacher. "Coastal aquifers" was his favourite subject, and he supervised the construction of a parallel-plate Hele-Shaw model to demonstrate seawater intrusion to his students. Even after the advent of computer modeling in groundwater studies, he insisted that his students should always keep in mind the basic principles of hydrogeology, realize the importance of good quality field work, and avoid over-simplification of natural conditions while modeling. In the classroom, his casehistories included his personal experiences on projects from various countries such as M~xico, Uruguay, Nepal, Iran, Israel, and Korea. Prof. Mandel had a special skill of making his lectures interesting and engrossing by adding witty comments and remarks from time to time. He liked to refer to the water table or piezometric head as the "pulse" of the aquifer, which his students should monitor in order to prevent the aquifer from becoming "ill." He loved his students and was always prepared