Among the winners of the Wolf Prize in Medicine: the Israeli-Canadian scientist Prof. Nahum Sonnenberg from McGill University in Canada. The Wolf Prize is awarded this year for the first time in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.
Deputy Chairman of the Wolf Foundation, Prof. Dan Shechtman, filled the place of the Minister of Education and Chairman of the Wolf Foundation, Rabbi Shai Piron, who was unable to attend the ceremony, and announced together with the CEO of the Wolf Foundation, Dr. Liat Ben David, the winners of the Wolf Award for the year 2014 at an event held this evening, Thursday in Tel Aviv, in the capacity of Director General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space Bina Bar-On.
The five prizes, totaling 100 dollars (half a million dollars in total), will be divided this year between 8 winners from 4 countries: the United States, Canada, Sweden and Taiwan.
In agriculture, the prize will be awarded to Prof. Jorge Dovchovski from the United States and Prof. Leif Anderson from Sweden for their groundbreaking contribution to plant and animal science research, through the use of advanced technologies in genome research; in chemistry to Prof. Chi-Wei Wong from Taiwan for his numerous and original contributions to the development of innovative methods for programmed and applied synthesis of complex polysaccharides and glycoproteins; in mathematics to Prof. Peter Sarnak from the United States for his profound contributions in analysis, number theory, geometry and combinatorics; In medicine to Prof. Nahum Sonnenberg from Canada for the discovery of the proteins that supervise the mechanism of protein expression and for deciphering their mode of action and to Prof. Gary Robkon and Prof. Victor Ambrose from the United States for the discovery of micro-RNA molecules which play a central role in the control of gene expression in natural processes and disease processes. In the nanny field, the award in the field of painting and sculpture will be given to the Swedish artist Olafur Eliasson from Sweden thanks to a combination of art and science that evokes moments of personal and universal revelation.
According to the Minister of Science, Technology and Space Yaakov Perry, "The award puts Israel on the map, serves as an important pillar in strengthening the value of excellence in Israel, and places it at the center of the global scientific arena. The award, which we are proud to be a part of, expresses appreciation for a blessed and inspiring work."
The Wolf Prize has a very prestigious international reputation. In the fields of exact sciences, he is considered the second most important in the world after the Nobel Prize. In the field of arts, the award is considered the most important. Over 33 percent of the Wolf Prize winners were later crowned Nobel Prize winners in the field of exact sciences, which coincide with the two prizes (medicine, physics and chemistry). The prize will be awarded to the winners on June 1, 2014 in a state ceremony at the Knesset in the presence of outgoing President Shimon Peres and the new president who will be elected a few weeks earlier.
In the coming days, we will publish the detailed reasons for winning, as well as an interview we held with high school students who are studying and even researching at Tel Aviv University at the same time at Tel Aviv University as part of a unique nationwide program. Six of the students joined the award committee members and explained the reasons for winning.
See extensions on each of the awards:
- Wolf Prize for Chemistry for developing the ability to synthesize large biological molecules
- The wheat breeders won the Wolf Prize for Agriculture
- Prof. Nahum Sonnenberg, a pioneer in the field of protein translational control, and the two microRNA researchers: Gary Robkon and Victor Ambrose won the Wolf Prize for Medicine
- The Wolf Prize for Mathematics to Prof. Peter Sarnak, lays the foundations in many fields, including the "zeros that lie low"
- Olafur Eliasson from Denmark won the Wolf Prize for Art for combining art and science
