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{{Short description|Israeli scientist}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Gideon Mer
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Gideon Mer.jpg
| image_upright =
| landscape =
| alt =
| caption = Gideon Mer with assistant, 1955
| native_name = גדעון מר
| native_name_lang = he
| pronunciation =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1894
| birth_place = [[Panevėžys]], [[Lithuania]], [[Russian Empire]]
| baptised =
| disappeared_date =
| disappeared_place =
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1961|3|22|1894|1|1}}
| death_place = [[Rosh Pinna]], [[Israel]]
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| citizenship = Israeli
| education = Studied medicine in [[France]]
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Scientist, malariologist
| years_active =
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| employer = [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], [[Ministry of Health (Israel)]]
| organization =
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| known_for = Eradication of [[malaria]]
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| title = Chief Malaria Adviser to the [[Ministry of Health (Israel)]]
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| children = [[Arna Mer-Khamis]]
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| relatives = [[Juliano Mer-Khamis]] (grandson)
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[[Image:Roshpina.jpg|thumb|right|Gideon Mer's house in [[Rosh Pinna]].]]
'''Gideon Mer''' ({{langx|he|גדעון מר}}; 1894, [[Panevėžys]] - 22 March 1961 [[Rosh Pinna]]) was an Israeli scientist whose work was mostly concerned with the [[Eradication of infectious diseases|eradication]] of [[malaria]]. He was the father of [[Arna Mer-Khamis]] and the grandfather of [[Juliano Mer-Khamis]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Birenberg|first=Yoav|title=Juliano Mer's final curtain call|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4053072,00.html|newspaper=[[Ynetnews]]|date=6 April 2011|quote=Many of the jolts and tribulations experienced by the three brothers stem from their childhood as the sons of an Arab intellectual father Saliba Khamis and a Jewish mother, Arna Mer, a relentless idealist who joined 'Maki' (the Israeli Communist Party).}}</ref>

==Biography==
Gideon Mer was born in [[Lithuania]], then part of [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]]. He studied medicine in [[France]].<ref name="Obituary">Obituary in the British Medical Journal 1961 (29 July 1961), Volume 2, Issue 5247, page 315, doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5247.315-b [http://www.bmj.com/content/2/5247/315.3]</ref> He [[aliyah|immigrated]] to Palestine in 1914.<ref name="Obituary"/> During [[World War I]], he was a medical officer in the [[Jewish Legion]], a unit of the [[British Army]], and served at [[Battle of Gallipoli|Gallipoli]], in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], [[Syria]], and [[Turkey]].<ref name="Obituary"/> After the war he returned to [[Rosh Pinna]], a Jewish settlement in the north of Palestine, and his laboratory there eventually became a research station for the study of the [[bionomics]] of [[mosquito]]es and methods of malaria control.<ref name="Obituary"/>
==Scientific career==
With the opening of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] he joined the Department of [[Preventive Medicine]].<ref name="Obituary"/>

In 1927 [[Israel Jacob Kligler]] founded the "Malaria Research Station" of the Hebrew University in Rosh Pina, where pioneering field work was carried out relating to the eradication of malaria. Two years later he appointed Dr. Gideon Mer as the station manager and together they published a series of articles on malaria.<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1930
| title = Studies on malaria: V. Therapeutic value of mixtures of plasmochin and quinine.
| journal = Rivista di Malariologia
| volume = 9
| issue = 3
| pages = 272–283
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1930
| title = Studies on malaria: VI. Long-range dispersion of Anopheles during the prehibernating period.
| journal = Rivista di Malariologia
| volume = 9
| issue = 4
| pages = 363–374
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1931
| title = Studies on malaria. VII. Relapse rate after quinine-plasmoquine treatment.
| journal = Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| volume = 25
| issue = 2
| pages = 121–127
| doi = 10.1016/S0035-9203(31)90043-6
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1931
| title = Studies on malaria. VIII. The migration of infected A. elutus at various seasons of the year.
| journal = J. Prevent. Med.
| volume = 5
| pages = 401–407
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1931
| title = Periodic intermittent treatment with chinoplasmine as a measure of malaria control in a hyperendemic area
| journal = Rivista di Malariologia
| volume = 10
| issue = 4
| pages = 425–438
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1932
| title = Studies on malaria in an uncontrolled hyperendemic area. X. Behaviour of A. elutus in relation to housing and malaria.
| journal = Rivista di Malariologia
| volume = 11
| pages = 553–583
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
| last3 = Olitzki
| first3 = L.
|year = 1932
| title = Studies on malaria. XI. Seasonal variations in the food preference of Anopheles elutus.
| journal = Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| volume = 26
| issue = 3
| pages = 283–287
| doi = 10.1016/S0035-9203(32)90211-9
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1936
| title = Anopheles in Syria and their distribution.
| journal = Rivista di Malariologia
| volume = 15
| pages = 217–221
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Kligler
| first = I.J.
| last2 = Mer
| first2 = G.
|year = 1937
| title = Studies on the effect of various factors on the infection rate of Anopheles elutus with different species of Plasmodium.
| journal = Ann. Trop. Med. Parasitol.
| volume = 31
| pages = 71–83
| doi = 10.1080/00034983.1937.11684967
}} 
{{cite journal
| last = Mer
| first = G.
| last2 = Birnbaum
| first2 = D.
| last3 = Kligler
| first3 = I.J.
|year = 1941
| title = Lysis of blood of malaria patients by bile or bile salts.
| journal = Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| volume = 34
| issue = 5
| pages = 373–378
| doi = 10.1016/S0035-9203(41)90040-8
}}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], Mer served in the British Forces with the rank of colonel and was malaria adviser to Middle East Command.<ref name="Obituary"/> After the war he joined the staff of the new school of medicine and became chief malaria adviser to the Ministry of Health in Israel, of which he was acting director in 1956 and 1957.<ref name="Obituary"/> As malaria was brought under control Professor Mer investigated the control of other insects, particularly the [[horse-fly]], and the Rosh Pinna research station undertook the testing of [[insecticide]]s and the training of scientists.<ref name="Obituary"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071225180154/http://www.veterans.org.il/?p=206 Gideon Mer at Israel War Veterans League]
*[http://www.bmj.com/content/2/5247/315.3 Obituary in the British Medical Journal 1961 (29 July 1961), Volume 2, Issue 5247, page 315, doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5247.315-b]
*The early contribution of Dr. John Cropper (1864–1916) to the study of malaria in Ottoman Palestine and its eventual eradication. English-language abstract of article by Zalman Greenberg, ''What is the link between the sister of the "Titanic" and the history of medicine in Palestine?'', in "Harefuah", June 2006; 145(6):457-60, 468–9. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16838904]
*[https://haifa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/collectionDiscovery?vid=HAU&inst=972HAI_MAIN&collectionId=81177231200002791&lang=en_US Gideon Mer Collection] on the Digital collections of [[Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library]], University of Haifa

== See also ==
{{Commons category}}
*[[Anopheles]]
*[[Health care in Israel]]
*[[Israel Jacob Kligler]], colleague and founder of the Malaria Research Station in Rosh Pinna where he appointed Mer as station manager
*[[Juliano Mer-Khamis]]
*[[Science and technology in Israel]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mer, Gideon}}
[[Category:Jewish scientists]]
[[Category:Lithuanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Lithuanian Jews]]
[[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Israeli Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Lithuanian Zionists]]
[[Category:Malariologists]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1961 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers]]
[[Category:Jewish Legion personnel]]
[[Category:Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Immigrants of the Second Aliyah]]

Gideon Mer - Revision history

imported>PKsmart: Added short description