One of the first agricultural researchers in Mandatory Palestine and then Israel, she studied methods for industrial processing of fruits and vegetables, canning, and food infestation.

[2] She was director of the Department of Food Technology at the Agricultural Research Station (Volcani Center) in Rehovot from the early 1950s to 1969.

in household science in 1933 at UC Berkeley; her masters thesis was on "The Effect of Excess Viosterol and of Parathyroid Extract upon the Tissues of Rats".

In 1946 Samish received a grant from the Mandatory government to develop methods for producing juices and concentrates from citrus fruits.

[3][7][10] Her research on "bloaters" – cucumbers that float to the surface instead of staying in the brine during the pickling process – was reported in the U.S. publications Science News[11] and Organic Gardening and Farming.

[3][14] Zdenka Samish died on March 8, 2008, less than a week shy of her 104th birthday, and was buried beside her husband in the Rehovot Old Cemetery.