Joseph Gale was born in London, UK but immigrated to Israel in 1948. He studied at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and then completed his advanced studies at the University of California and the University of Michigan, USA. He was a visiting professor at McGill University in Canada and the Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel. At BGU he headed a research department and served as Institute Director and head of the International Center. His environmental expertise and experience in military and commercial aviation led to participation in a NASA project for Controlled Environment Life Support Systems for space flight. He has published more than one hundred refereed papers and co-edited/authored two books. Presently he is Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University where he teaches a course on the Astrobiology of Planet Earth.