A year has passed since Eshel Bresler, my good friend and colleague, and
a member of the editorial board of the Advanced Series in Agricultural
Sciences, died suddenly while on a visit to the Chinese Academy of
Sciences in Beijing. We had worked together for almost 30 years at the
Institute of Soils and Water, ARO, The Volcani Center at Bet Dagan. At
the very beginning of our scientific careers we cooperated directly and
as a result one of our first publications was coauthored (Soil Sci.
101:205-209, 1966). Thereafter, our specific research interests diver-
sified, but we continued to work together, with similar approaches to
research, and to strive towards the development of Israel soil science
and its integration into general worldwide scientific progress. I don't
need to emphasize Eshel's contribution to the understan- ding of the
processes governing water flow and solute transport pro- cesses in soils
and unsaturated zones. The contributions to this Volume by such a body
of outstanding scientists shows the apprecia- tion of the international
scientific community to his research achievements.