Yitshak Elazari-Volcani

Yitzhak Elazari Volcani (; January 28, 1880 - May 24, 1955) was a writer, agronomist and botanist, pioneer of agricultural research in Israel and the founder of Volcani Center of Agricultural Research.

Born as Yitzchak-Avigdor Wilkansky in Eišiškės, Russian Empire (now in Lithuania), Elazari-Volcani got a degree in Agronomy from the University of Königsberg and made aliyah to Eretz Israel in 1908. There, he worked as a director of experimental farm in Ben Shemen and Huldah, where he lived from 1914, that later became a faculty of the Hebrew University. Volcani was a member of Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization in Palestine, and advisor of the World Zionist Organization.

His brother, Meir Wilkansky (1882–1949), was a Hebrew writer and translator. His son, Benjamin Elazari Volcani, was a biologist who found life in the Dead Sea; his daughter, Zafrira Volcani (1910-1988), was a microbiologist.

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