Ian Kaplan: from shtetl to famous scientist

By Nina Gershuni and Lynette Collins

Ian (Isaac) Kaplan was born in Hancewicz, Poland, in 1929 to Morrie (Meishke) Kaplan and Hanya (Anny) Kaplan (neé Chait). Morrie was born in Lachowicze in 1901 and Tanya was born in Hancewicze in 1908.

In 1937, thanks to the assistance of our mother’s brother, Charlie Chait, visas were sent to our parents, Ian, and our grandfather Abram Chait to travel to the safe haven of New Zealand. The family settled originally in Christchurch, where three more Kaplan children, Lynette, Aaron and Nina were born.

Ian as a child in Hancewicze, Poland, 1930

Ian graduated with BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry, this graduation pic was taken in 1953

Our father bought and sold jewellery and antiques door-to-door in Christchurch during the war. After spending about 11 years in Christchurch, our family moved to Wellington in 1948. There, father started his own business, buying a ladies' clothing shop at 58 Manners St which he called Stylerite. In 1959, he and Rachmiel Heitner opened what was probably the first coffee shop in Wellington, the Cafe Capri, wedged between Stylerite and The Roxy.

After finishing B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Chemistry at Canterbury College, Ian had an interesting job with Dr Athol Rafter at DSIR in Lower Hutt working on the new field of carbon dating.

Ian moved to Sydney in 1954, where he met and married Helen, the girl next door, and worked at Sydney University in the department of microbiology headed by Professor de Burgh. There are a couple of interesting coincidences regarding others who worked in this lab. Solly Faine was doing medical research there and so was a young medical student named Geoff Collins who, in 1964, married Ian’s sister Lynette and became Ian’s brother-in-law.

Ian and Helen left Sydney for California in 1957 and he continued his studies, earning a PhD in Biogeochemistry from the University of Southern California. He then went on to do a post-doc in geochemistry at Caltech.

Israel was always part of our family’s credo. Our grandfather Abram made Aliyah on his own at the age of 82 and died in Israel at age 94. His grandfather Shaya, in the middle of the 19th century, walked from Lachowicze, (which was then Russia), to Jerusalem and is buried on the Mount of Olives.

Nina couldn’t wait to make Aliyah and left for Israel as soon as she finished high school, graduating from the Hebrew University with a BA. She now lives in Zichron Ya’acov. Although Ian wanted to make Aliyah, that didn’t work out, but along with Roger Benjamin, Reuven Zander, Bernard and Blanche Weinstein and others, he was a founder of Habonim NZ.

So after finishing his studies in Los Angeles, Ian was very excited to be offered a job in Jerusalem in the department of Chemical Microbiology at Hadassah Medical School. They arrived there in 1962, about 6 months after Lynette had left Jerusalem and returned to Wellington.

In 1963, when Ian, Helen and Debora were moving to Jerusalem, our parents and Lynette left Wellington for good and moved to Sydney. Both Nina and Aaron were living in Israel at that time.

For the next 2 years, Ian’s studies involved the Jordan River watershed and the Dead Sea. During that time, he met 2 students who were very keen to do post-doctoral work under him and when he returned to Los Angeles in 1965 to take up a professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles, they came to work in his lab. The main fields of research were deep sea sediments, lunar samples, meteorites and the kinetics of petroleum formation.

Ian’s scientific interests were many and he started researching the influence of minerals in the formation of hydrocarbons and their connection to solving environmental pollution problems. In addition to his teaching and research, he and Helen set up a company called Global Geochemistry, dedicated to diagnosing environmental pollution and oil feasibility studies in oceans around the globe.

Professor Ian Kaplan
in later years, Los Angeles 2019

Following the sale of his company, he donated the proceeds to the Hebrew University Institute of Earth Sciences which holds a biennial symposium/workshop in his name: the Kaplan Workshop. It gave him the opportunity to visit Israel regularly and enjoy meeting up with old friends, family, colleagues, students and scientists from overseas who attended the workshop.

Ian was a superb and dedicated teacher, who loved learning, teaching, doing research and writing papers. He often got home late because he would enjoy chatting with his students and answering questions in his office at the end of the day. He was loved and respected by scientists around the world and won several prestigious awards and tributes. Ian also loved traveling and visited many parts of the world for meetings and with his family. He was also extremely hospitable, was the ultimate tour guide and for many years entertained family members and colleagues from overseas.

Although in his latter years Ian wasn’t able to visit Israel, he kept current with Israeli affairs and remained in touch with his old students and colleagues. His love for Israel remained very strong.

Ian passed away on 11 November 2021 aged 92. He is survived by Helen, his wife of 66 years, his children Debora and David, and 6 grandchildren. He is sorely missed by his family, friends and his scientific colleagues in Israel and around the world.

Many thanks to Ian Kaplan’s sisters, Nina Gershuni and Lynette Collins, for this contribution to Jewish Lives.

Ian Kaplan: from shtetl to famous scientist