Israel Abramov was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He moved to London for undergraduate work in law and then psychology, and then to the United States for graduate studies in psychology. He was a postdoctoral fellow in biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. He was assistant professor of biophysics at Rockefeller University before moving to Brooklyn College in 1973 as associate professor of psychology. Currently, he is professor of psychology. He is also professor of cognition, brain and behavior, and professor of biopsychology and behavioral neuroscience, both at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Professor Abramov studies the visual system across the life span, using psychophysical methods to understand the underlying biology. He and his collaborators measure spatio-temporal resolution, binocular functions, color functions, etc.; ask which functions are correlated and thus share neuronal substrates; and test specific groups, such as participants with Down syndrome. Applied topics include illumination of art in museums and identifying stylistic groupings of archaeological artifacts.