Book excerpt: This is a series of personal recollections concerning the life and work of a leading American-Israeli environmental and agricultural scientist, whose wide-ranging personal and professional experiences span eight decades and some 40 countries around the world. It recalls a family's journey in 1932 from California to Palestine, and the events that led to his taking part in the establishment of the first modern settlement in the highlands of the Negev Desert (later joined by ex-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion), and helping to innovate and apply efficient methods of soil and water management in irrigated and rain-fed farming.Over the years, Daniel Hillel has taught hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students at major universities in Israel and the US, authored over 200 original research papers and ten definitive textbooks that have been translated and published in several languages, initiated and edited eight multi-author books (including the Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment), and served on advisory and research missions (sponsored by UN's FAO, IAEA, USAID, Canada's IDRC, and Germany's ZEF) to some 40 countries in Asia, Africa, South America and Australasia, and was environment and irrigation advisor to the World Bank. He has helped initiate and conduct research at NASA/Goddard Institute and Columbia University on the potential impacts of climate change on regional and global food production.Dr Hillel's life-long goal is to enhance the application of science toward the efficient and environmentally sound development of human, biotic, land, and water resources. For his multiple contributions to the science and the practice of enhanced and sustainable food production, Dr Hillel was awarded the World Food Prize in 2012.