Inspired by travels with his father on botanical expeditions, Zohary took an interest in the flora of the region and began to interact with other researchers like Tuviah Kushnir, Daniel Raz and Eviatar.
His study was interrupted by war in 1948, during which he was stationed in the Jerusalem Corridor where heavy fighting resulted in the loss of most of his platoon and many of his fellow students, including his close friend Tuviah Kushnir.
[3] In 1952, he moved to the University of California and worked on his PhD under G. Ledyard Stebbins on the cytogenetics of Dactylis glomerata.
In 1954 he married his girlfriend Devora, and in 1956, he returned with his family to the Hebrew University where he helped found the department of genetics.
[3][4] Zohary had three children Tamar,[5] a marine biologist; Ruth,[6] an artist; and Ehud, Professor of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the Safra Brain Center, Hebrew University.