Among the winners of this year's Wolf Prize are the discoverer of the hormone responsible for regulating body weight and obesity, and the renowned architect Moshe Safdia. The event was held in the capacity of the President of the State and the Minister of Education
At an event in the capacity of the President of the State, Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin, Minister of Education and Chairman of the Wolf Foundation, Naftali Bennett, Prof. Dan Shechtman, Chairman of the Board of the Wolf Foundation and winner of the Wolf Prize himself, and the CEO of the Foundation, Reut Yanon Berman, were announced today (16.1) Winners of the Wolf Prize for 2019. The five prizes, totaling 100 thousand dollars in each field (half a million dollars in total), will be divided this year between seven winners from three countries: the USA, France and Israel. The prize will be awarded to the winners at the end of May in a state ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem by the President of the State and Chairman of the Wolf Fund, the Minister of Education.
The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded to Professor Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University, for the identification of leptin, the hormone responsible for regulating body weight and obesity. Mutations in leptin or its receptor cause massive obesity in mammals and leptin treatment is effective in obesity in patients suffering from a deficiency in this hormone. Before Friedman's research, very little was known about the components of the biological systems that regulate weight and many doubted the existence of such systems at all.
The Wolf Prize in Architecture is awarded to architect Moshe Sepadia. One of the most famous architects in the world, who broke out in his youth thanks to the innovative project "Habitat 67" in Montreal. Since the beginning of the 70s, he has managed to leave a significant mark all over the world and in Israel, among other things thanks to the projects: Yad Vashem Museum, Terminal 3 in Israel, the city of Modi'in, the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, the Mamilla complex with the Citadel of David hotel in Jerusalem and more
The Wolf Prize in Agriculture is awarded to Professor David Silberman of the University of California, Berkeley, for developing economic models to address fundamental issues in agriculture, economics and policy. Zilbman, born in the city of Jerusalem, deals with the economics of agriculture, the environment, technology and the risks involved. Its purpose is to integrate economic theory to solve problems in the world, in both developed and developing countries.
The Wolf Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Professor Stephen L. Buchwald of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, together with Professor John F. Hartwig from the University of California, Berkeley, for the development of catalysts that changed the way drug molecules are made and thus led to a breakthrough in the construction of drugs and the construction of synthetic materials in general.
The Wolf Prize in Mathematics is awarded to Professor Gregory Lawler from the University of Chicago, for his wide-ranging and ground-breaking research dealing with loops and random trajectories. and to Professor Jean-Francois Le Gall of the University of Paris-Sade d'Orsay, for his profound and elegant works dealing with stochastic processes. The work of the mathematicians had a great impact and their works on loops and probability, which were recognized by many prizes, are a milestone that formed the infrastructure for many bright breakthroughs that followed.
The winners are expected to arrive in Israel for the award ceremony and a series of related events at the end of May.
