Controlling the memory mechanism of plants, a physical discovery that will lead to an energy revolution, and a 45-year-old Israeli who has meanwhile retired from academic research, these are just some of the unique people and discoveries that were announced this morning as the winners of the Wolf Prize for 2020, for their unique contribution to humanity and to friendly relations between peoples, regardless of religion, gender , race, geographic location or political position.
This morning the names of the winners of the 2020 Wolff Prize for Science and Art were announced at the Israel President's Residence, in the presence of the President of the State, Mr. Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin, the Minister of Education Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Prof. Dan Shechtman, chairman of the Wolff Foundation Council (Nobel Prize winner for 2011 and Wolff Prize winner for 1999).
The President of the State, Reuven Rivlin: "The Wolf Prize is the highest scientific and artistic award, and the most honorable that the State of Israel gives, to the best scientists and artists from the world and Israel, here in Jerusalem."
The president added: "The award expresses the appreciation and commitment of the State of Israel to scientific, creative, and critical thinking, and the belief that science, critical thinking, art and creativity are the infrastructure of the State of Israel and Israeli society."
The Minister of Education, Rafi Peretz: "The extraordinary works of the Wolf Prize winners are the fruit of a long process and a courageous journey, never-ending curiosity and the absence of fear of the wall of convention." Excellence exists through dedicated work, investment and endless commitment, which lasts for years.'
The five prizes, totaling 100 thousand dollars in each field, will be distributed this year to nine winners from six countries: USA, England, France, Russia, Spain and Israel. The Wolf Prize in Art will be awarded this year to Cindy Sherman (New York, USA), an artist who redefined the concept of art created with a camera. The artist Sherman uses herself as a model in all her works. The Wolf Prize in Agriculture will be awarded this year to Prof. Caroline Dean (John Innes Institute, England) for her understanding of memory and temperature sensing mechanisms in plants, with the aim of bringing the farmer control over the times of flowering and flowering.
The Wolf Prize in Physics will be awarded this year to three winners: Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, born in Spain, who serves as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - (MIT) USA, to Prof. Alan H. McDonald from the University of Texas at Austin - and to Dr. Rafi Bistritzer, from the company Applied Materials - Israel, for their pioneering work in the theory and experiment of two-layer graphene from Subweb which will lead, among other things, to a tremendous energy revolution. The Wolf Prize in Medicine will be awarded to two winners: Prof. Jennifer Doudna from the University of California, Berkeley and the French researcher Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Institute. The two led the discovery of the revolutionary gene editing tool known as CRISPR. With their groundbreaking findings, the scientists laid the foundation for the development of an innovative technology of diverse and specific editing and engineering of the genome. With the help of this revolutionary technology of "genetic scissors" it is possible to "turn on" or "turn off" a gene, change, repair or remove genes. tool
This innovation is currently used in molecular biology laboratories around the world, and has the potential to pave new ways to treat incurable diseases. This technology leads a revolution in the fields of genetics, molecular biology, and medicine.
The Wolf Prize in Mathematics will be awarded this year to two winners: Prof. Yaakov Eliashberg, born in Russia who currently serves as a researcher at Stanford University, California and Prof. Simon Donaldson, from Stony Brook University on Long Island and Imperial College London in England. for their contributions to differential geometry and topology.
Detailed reasons for each winner in separate articles that will be included in the coming days:
The winners in physics, including an interview with Rafi Bistritzer
The winners of the Wolf Prize for Medicine, the CRISPR developers -
The award ceremony for the winners will be held on June 11.6.2020, XNUMX in the Knesset building.
The Wolf Foundation is an Israeli state foundation, whose goal is to promote excellence in science and art. Every year, the President of the State of Israel, on behalf of the Foundation, awards the prestigious Wolf Prize - an international award given to scientists and artists from around the world, for achievements "to advance science and art for the sake of humanity and for friendly relations between peoples, without differences of religion, gender, race, geographical location or position political". By giving the award, we salute the leaders and pioneers in the fields of science and the arts who in practice have contributed to creating a better world.
The prizes awarded in the scientific field are in the subjects of medicine, agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, and physics, in the fields of art the prize is awarded in the subjects of painting and sculpture, music and architecture. The winners are chosen by international judging committees, appointed every year anew and including professionals, who are world-renowned in their field.
The Wolf Prize, which has a very prestigious international reputation, is awarded for the 42nd year. Since the founding of the foundation, 345 scientists and artists have won Wolf Prizes, and about a third of Wolf Prize winners have subsequently won a Nobel Prize, in the fields common to both prizes. The last of them are Prof. Mayor and Prof. Cavaloz (who won the Wolf Prize in 2017 and the Nobel Prize in 2019) and Prof. Allison (who won the Wolf Prize in 2017 and the Nobel Prize in 2018)
The Wolf Foundation was founded in 1975 by the late Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, diplomat and philanthropist, and his wife, who donated their wealth to establish the foundation, which they founded together with former President Ephraim Katzir and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The rules for awarding the award are fixed in the Wolf Foundation Law, which was approved by the Knesset in 1975.
Among the winners over the years: astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Prof. Ada Yonat, Prof. Shinya Yemanka, artists Marc Chagall, Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois, Lori Anderson, conductor Zubin Mehta, opera singer Jessie Norman, Prof. Ruth Arnon, Prof. Mastoshi Koshiba and more.
