Dan took that first step by initiating the founding of a Working Group on the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Soil Science within the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) in 1982 (IUSS, selleck chemicals llc 1982). The new committee spun off a Council in the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 1990 (Brevik, 2011), and both groups began active programs of symposia and publications that continue to this day. Within the ISSS, symposia were organized and chaired by Dan at the World Congresses in 1990 (Kyoto; Historical, philosophical and sociological aspects of development in soil science), 1994 (Acapulco; Origin and transmission of ideas in soil science), and 1998 (Montpellier; Attitudes to

soil care and land use through human history). Dan was also a central figure in organizing a symposium at the 2006 WCSS (Philadelphia; History of Soil Science in Developing Countries). Even though his health did not allow him to travel signaling pathway to the Congress and a co-organizer served as chair, Dan helped lead the symposium through the proposal stage and secured many commitments for presentations. Dan edited the landmark volume History of Soil Science ( Yaalon and Berkowicz 1997) and he was a key player in the conceptualization

of Footprints in the Soil ( Warkentin 2006). The former volume took some six years of work and at a time when one was still reliant on regular Sodium butyrate postal mail. The IUSS Committee on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Soil Science has also been active in producing newsletters since its founding, with 20 newsletters produced on a schedule that has alternated from annual to something less than that.. For part of its run, Dan served as the editor and after those duties were completed he continued to take an active interest in the newsletters and was very helpful in finding contributors to it. In 2010 Dan received the Doukouchaev medal for his overall achievements in soil science. In Dan’s autobiography published in 2012 (“The Yaalon Story”) he provided us with a fitting epitaph: “I

am overwhelmed by the fact that starting from a small town in Czechoslovakia, surviving that fateful and devastating Holocaust, I have succeeded in making a contribution for the benefit of mankind — which I consider as an acceptable criterion for evaluating my work.” Dan published extensively with a focus on the soils and geomorphology of arid regions, the effects of land use changes on soils, and paleosols. Quite recently, he collaborated on an important philosophical paper (Richter and Yaalon, 2012) that proposed a new model of soil which posited the emerging science of anthropedology. While a complete list of his publications is given in Yaalon (2012), the following is a list of his works in the history of soil science: Yaalon, D.H. 1989. The earliest soil maps and their logic.