A Life of Discovery: Former Loyola Professor Israel Hanin Dies at Age 88

Former Loyola Professor and Chairman of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Israel Hanin, Ph.D., died March 5 at age 88. 

Israel Hanin served from 1986 to 2003. Throughout his years at Loyola, he made pivotal contributions to research on neurodegenerative diseases, including publishing the positive effects of treating Alzheimer’s disease with Glycosaminoglycan C3. 

Born in 1937 in Shanghai, China, Israel Hanin’s family lived briefly in Kobe, Japan before returning to Shanghai. At age 12, Israel Hanin and his family obtained their Israeli citizenship and moved to Israel, where he found his passion for the sciences, according to his obituary.

This passion followed him to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where, after his mandated 30 months in the Israeli Defense Forces, he was able to pursue a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and later a Ph.D. in pharmacology. It was at UCLA where Hanin met his wife Leda Wermer. The couple had two children, Adam and Dahlia Hanin, before Wermer passed away in 2006. 

At UCLA, Israel Hanin continued pursuing his love for the sciences, but also explored a passion in acting. Before his time at UCLA, Israel Hanin acted in the first English-speaking film in Israel, “The Faithful City,” in 1952 after his parents submitted his picture to the director. Dahlia Hanin said it was this experience where Israel Hanin first gained an interest in acting, but his fervor for science outweighed this intrigue.

“I think if you’re a scientist, it’s kind of your calling,” Dahlia Hanin said. “While he enjoyed doing the acting, it didn’t have enough allure.”

Before coming to Loyola, Israel Hanin served as the director of psychopharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for over a decade. He joined the Ramblers and became Loyola’s chairman of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. Here, Israel Hanin devoted time to the search for a cure in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and dedicated much of his time to ensuring his students were prepared for their careers in science.

Israel Hanin implemented a course at Loyola focused on preparing new scientists for professional situations which may not have been taught in the major’s curriculum. Dahlia Hanin said her father was devoted to strengthening students as much as possible, which drew him to the university in the first place. 

“He was really very invested in making sure that young scientists, in particular, not only had access to established individuals, but he wanted them to have access to him as the chairman as well,” Dahlia Hanin said. 

Dahlia Hanin also received her master’s from Loyola, though she followed her mother’s footsteps into marketing rather than pursuing a career in science. She said while the passion for a career in science didn’t pass to her, she was still able to spend lots of time in her father’s world of science. 

“I worked in his lab when I was 10 or 11 years old helping him with the gas chromatograph,” Dahlia Hanin said, explaining a machine that separates vaporized compounds. 

A committed researcher for all of his professional career, Israel Hanin had pivotal work published for his studies in neurodegenerative diseases and was a cofounder of the Annual International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Dahlia Hanin said her father’s work was his biggest passion.

“He was a pioneer in cholinergic science,” she said. “The impact it had for future generations who were studying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is just incalculable.” 

Israel Hanin’s final days were spent with his wife Vandi Felman, along with other friends and family. Though Dahlia Hanin described her father as a man of few words, she said the intensity with which he pursued his passions had a tremendous impact on the medical and academic communities, as well as her life.

Dahlia Hanin said the most important life lesson taught her was how to persevere through misfortune 

“Science doesn’t always give you the answers that you want, but they give you the answers that exist,” she said. “Learning to pivot from there, or to learn from the losses. How do you then create meaning from that, and what do you do now, I think was one of the most important lessons he taught me.”