Israeli professor wins Nobel Prize
TEL AVIV — Professor Ada Yonath, 70, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
She is also the first woman to become a chemistry laureate since 1964 and becomes the Weizmann Institute’s first Nobel prizewinner.
The prize of $1.4 million will be shared between Yonath and two American scientists, Venkatraman Ramakrishan and Thomas Steitz.
All three scientists had generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes, but Professor Yonath’s work was the pioneering work that set the stage for new more effective antibiotic drugs in the future.
Professor Yonath started her research in the late 1970s as a young student at the Weizmann Institute.
The journey began in a modest laboratory with a modest budget and over the years increased to a team of researchers.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions, and is the home to 2600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff.
ISRANET
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