Background
Lutz Striem was born in Berlin, Germany.
Lutz Striem was born in Berlin, Germany.
At the age of 15 he studied at the Ben-Yehuda Gymnasium in Tel Aviv and matriculated with distinctions.
Striem began his military service during World World War II as a volunteer to the British Army, first serving in Egypt and then in Siena, Italy. As a Sergeant in the Field Survey Company 524 of the Royal Engineering Corps, he was engaged with areal photography and mapping. When released in 1946, back in Palestine, Striem started his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus.
There he fought with the Haganah guards, but due to his military intelligence experience which were seen as a valuable asset, he was transferred to the Haganah headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Striem remained in the military during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War being among the pioneer officers establishing the Israeli military field intelligence at the Israeli Defense Forces (Israel Defense Forces). Striem was deeply involved in securing Israeli water rights (The War-over-water), Sinai war and Six-Day-War.
He rose through the ranks as a department-head Lieutenant Colonel. Following his military career, Striem served as a scientist (1968–1985) at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).
He was Deputy to Coordinator Nuclear Advisory Committee (1968–1972) and Acting Coordinator Nuclear Advisory Committee (1973).
From 1974 to his retirement he held the position of Head, Site Licensing Department at the Licensing Division. Alongside his military and civil service Striem continued his academic studies and research obtaining his Master of Science (1954) and Doctor of Philosophy (1972) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
One of Striem’s most significant contributions was his coining of the term: ‘rainspell’.
Analyzing the rainfalls of 20 years in Jerusalem he and Rosenan introduced the concept of rainspells, i. est groups of successive hours or days with precipitation which together constitute a meteorologically significant period. Rainspells thus defined were found to be characterized by their yield, duration and “intensity”, i. est the ratio between yield and duration of the spell as a whole.
In 1981 Striem spent a Sabbatical as Visiting Professor at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn.