Bloch, Moses Rudolph
BLOCH, MOSES RUDOLPH
BLOCH, MOSES RUDOLPH (1902–1985), physical chemist. Born in Czechoslovakia, Bloch studied chemistry at the Universities of Prague and Leipzig, and then proceeded to Switzerland and received his doctorate in physical chemistry at Berne in 1926. From 1927 to 1933 he headed the department of metallography and X-ray spectrography at the Higher Technical Institute of Karlsruhe. His researches on silver iodide and refrigeration were interrupted when the Nazis came to power, and he thereafter served as consultant on the technology of refrigeration in Holland, England, and France. Immigrating to Ereẓ Israel in 1936 he worked at the potash works at the Dead Sea, where he introduced a method of increasing evaporation by the sun and was head of the research division of the works. From 1940 to 1968 he was a member of the Scientific Council of Israel and the Advisory Technological Council of the Israel Government. In 1967 he was guest professor for research on water resources at the Hebrew University and at the Institute of Atomic Physics at Heidelberg from 1967 to 1968. Bloch also undertook research on bromine and potash in nature, and climatic and geological research. He was awarded the Israel Prize for Science in 1966.