In 1998, Prof. Benny Chefetz graduated the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Ph.D. degree in the Soil and Water Sciences program). During his Ph.D. study he investigated the transformation of organic matter during composting of municipal solid waste. Following graduation, the BARD-Vaadia Postdoctoral Fellowship program granted Dr. Chefetz support for a 2-year postdoctoral training at the Department of Chemistry, Ohio State University. During his fellowship, he gained practical knowledge in Environmental Chemistry and expertise in Analytical Chemistry.

Since 2001, Dr. Benny Chefetz has been a faculty member at the Department of Soil and Water Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2014, Dr. Chefetz was promoted to Prof. of Environmental Chemistry. Over the years, Prof. Chefetz served as the Head of the Department of Soil and Water (2008 – 2013), as the Vice Dean for Research (2013 – 2017) and since 2011 he is the Director of the Hebrew University Center of Excellence in Agriculture and Environmental Health.

The research group headed by Prof. Chefetz, aims at elucidating the fate and processes of organic pollutants occurring in water, reclaimed wastewater, soils and sediments. An overarching goal is to elucidate physical, chemical and biological processes that influence the behavior of organic pollutants in the agricultural environment.

Special interests are:

Prof. Chefetz supervised over 40 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and received numerous prizes for his excellence in teaching and research. To date, Prof. Chefetz as published more than 80 articles in refereed journals.

As of October 1st, 2017, Prof. Chefetz is serving as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment.