field

Venkatesan Sundaresan

Affiliation at the time of the award:

University of California, Davis, USA

Award citation:

“for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvement”.

Prize share:

Venkatesan Sundaresan

Joanne Chory

Elliot M. Meyerowitz

Venkatesan “Sundar” Sundaresan (born in 1952, India) majored in Physics, receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pune, the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, and Carnegie-Mellon University. He switched to life sciences for his doctoral studies and obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University for work on the regulation of nitrogen fixation genes in bacterial symbionts of legumes, under the guidance of Fred Ausubel. This was followed by postdoctoral research in plant genetics in the lab of Mike Freeling at the University of California-Berkeley. His first faculty appointment was at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He subsequently became the founding Director of the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology (now the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratories) at the National University of Singapore. Since 2001, he has served on the faculty of the University of California-Davis. During this period, he has also held appointments as Chair of the Department of Plant Biology and as Program Director of the BREAD program (a collaboration between the National Science Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He has served on the editorial boards of Genetics, Plant Reproduction, The Plant Cell, and Trends in Plant Science.
Seeds are a major food source for humankind. Seed yields can be greatly increased using hybrids with favorable gene combinations, yet hybrids are underutilized worldwide. The gene combinations contributing to high yields are lost after sexual reproduction so that farmers cannot replant seeds from hybrids. Instead, hybrid seeds must be produced commercially by cross-pollination, a labor-intensive and costly process. For most crops, the high expense of hybrid seeds puts them out of reach for subsistence farmers.
Seeds arise from the fertilization and fusion of plant gametes (reproductive cells). Sexual reproduction is the production of new organisms by combining the genetic information of two individuals of different sexes. Conversely, Asexual reproduction is a mode of reproduction in which a single parent produces a new offspring. The new individuals produced are genetically and physically identical to each other, i.e., they are the clones of their parents.
In a series of seminal papers over the past two decades, Dr. Sundaresan has uncovered molecular pathways and key genes that control the formation of plant gametes and initiate embryos after fertilization. These include discoveries of how meiocytes are specified and how female gametes acquire their distinct identity. Through systematic and meticulous investigations, his lab deduced that a gene active in sperm cells, BBM1 (Babyboom1), acts as a master regulator of embryo initiation. They showed that artificially switching on this gene in rice egg cells can produce progeny plants asexually. The discovery that a single gene from a sexual plant can bypass fertilization, opened the door to important applications. They combined egg cell activation of rice BBM1 with gene editing of known meiotic genes to abolish meiosis and obtained diploid clonal seeds genetically identical to the parent. The clones maintained the heterozygosity of the parent plants and produced descendants that were also clones. The method was then tested in commercial hybrid rice to produce multiple generations of clonal hybrid progeny, at efficiencies suitable for field use by farmers. Recently, they generated asexual progeny in maize, demonstrating the applicability of their approach to other major crops. This pioneering discovery paves the way for meeting increased food demands without increasing land use by planting hybrid crops.
Venkatesan Sundaresan is awarded the Wolf Prize for pioneering discoveries in the genetics and molecular biology of plant reproduction and seed formation and for the application of this knowledge to develop self-reproducing hybrid crops that will transform agriculture, making sustainably increased crop yields accessible to subsistence farmers.

Noga Alon

Affiliation at the time of the award:

Princeton University, USA

Award citation:

“for his fundamental contributions to Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science”.

Prize share:

Noga Alon

Adi Shamir 

“for their pioneering contributions to mathematical cryptography, combinatorics, and the theory of computer science”.

Noga Alon (born in Israel, 1956) is a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, a Baumritter Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, and one of the most influential mathematicians worldwide. His research and developments changed the face of the field, created new concepts and original methods, and contributed greatly to the development of theoretical research and their applications in discrete mathematics, information theory, graph theory, and their uses in the theory of computer science. He is one of the most prolific mathematicians in the world, published hundreds of articles, and trained many research students in mathematics and computer science.

Alon showed a profound interest in mathematics from an early age, drawn to its objectivity and pursuit of absolute truth. Encouraged by his parents and his math teacher to follow his passions, Alon delved into mathematics and participated in math competitions. After graduating in mathematics at the Technion, he continued to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1983 and held visiting positions in various research institutes, including MIT, Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, IBM Almaden Research Center, Bell Laboratories, Bellcore and Microsoft Research (Redmond and Israel). He joined Tel Aviv University in 1985, served as the head of the School of Mathematical Sciences in 1999-2000, retired from Tel Aviv, and moved to Princeton in 2018, where he works until today, and supervised many PhD students. He serves on the editorial boards of more than a dozen international professional journals and has given invited lectures at many conferences. He was the head of the scientific committee of the World Congress of Mathematics (Madrid, 2006) and a member of various prestigious prize committees worldwide. He published more than six hundred research papers and one book.

Alon’s contributions to mathematics are broad and have influenced many related areas in the theoretical and applied sciences. With his collaborators he established the tight connection between the expansion properties of a graph and its spectral properties and found numerous applications of expanders in Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science. His results stimulated a great amount of further work and are cited in essentially all subsequent extensive work in the area. In related work, he pioneered the application of spectral methods in the study of algorithmic problems. Alon proved the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz (1995), a powerful algebraic technique that yielded highly significant applications in Graph Theory, Combinatorics, and Additive Number Theory, including an extension of the Four-Color Theorem. With Nathanson and Ruzsa (1996) he obtained generalizations of the Cauchy-Davenport Theorem. In joint work with Kleitman (1992), he settled a problem of Hadwiger and Debrunner in Combinatorial Geometry raised in 1957, proving a far-reaching generalization of Helly’s Theorem. The method has proven to be highly influential and is described in most recent books and survey articles on the subject. Alon (1998) disproved a conjecture of Shannon, raised in 1956, proving the surprising fact that the Shannon capacity of a disjoint union of two channels can be much bigger than the sum of their capacities or even than any fixed power of this sum.

Alon played a major role in the development of probabilistic methods in Combinatorics, and his book with Spencer on the subject (first edition in 1992, fourth edition in 2016) is the undisputed leading text in this central area. His Color-Coding method, developed with Yuster and Zwick (1995), found applications in several other fields including the theory of Fixed Parameter Tractability and Bioinformatics. His joint work with Matias and Szegedy (1999) initiated the study of streaming algorithms investigating which statistical properties of a stream of data can be sampled and estimated on the fly. This has literally created a new active area of streaming and sketching algorithms and has numerous theoretical and applied applications.

Alon with his collaborators (1994) developed an algorithmic version of Szemerédi’s Regularity Lemma, discovered its connection to a classical inequality of Grothendieck, and used it to settle essentially all major open problems in the theory of Property Testing for dense graphs. This generated extensive research and played an important role in the subsequent development of Lovasz and his collaborators’ theory of convergent graph sequences.

Some of Noga Alon’s most influential works deal with “expander graphs”. These are sparse networks with strong connectivity properties. They were originally conceived as a way to build economical, robust networks (phone or computer) and have found extensive applications in computer science, in designing algorithms, error-correcting codes, pseudorandom generators, and more. Alon, in part with Milman, established a tight connection between the expansion properties of a graph and its “spectral” properties, reminiscent of a relation between classical and quantum mechanics, and found numerous applications of expanders in combinatorics and in theoretical computer science. Alon’s results stimulated a great amount of further work and are cited in essentially all subsequent extensive work in the area.
Noga Alon is being awarded the 2024 Wolf Prize for his profound impact on Discrete Mathematics and related areas. His seminal contributions include the development of ingenious techniques in Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Theoretical Computer Science, and the solution of long-standing problems in these fields as well as in Analytical Number Theory, Combinatorial Geometry, and Information Theory.

Adi Shamir

Affiliation at the time of the award:

The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Award citation:

“for his fundamental contributions to Mathematical Cryptography”.

Prize share:

Adi Shamir

Noga Alon

“for their pioneering contributions to mathematical cryptography, combinatorics, and the theory of computer science”.

Adi Shamir (born in Israel in 1952), a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, is one of the most senior computer scientists globally. He is a top expert in the fields of information encryption and decryption. Shamir was among the developers of the RSA method that changed the face of computer communication in the world and was a fundamental pillar in electronic commerce and information security.
From a young age, Shamir showed an interest in science and participated in youth academic programs and science summer camps at the Weizmann Institute of Science. After graduating with high honors with his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Tel Aviv University (1973), Shamir furthered his studies at the Weizmann Institute, focusing on computer science and earning an MSc in 1975, followed by a PhD in 1977. In his doctoral thesis, he examined the properties of certain mathematical functions that are relevant to the semantics of programming languages. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, he pursued a short-term postdoctoral position at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, and continued his academic journey at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, where he began to study the theory of encryption and the theory of decoding.
In traditional encryption, a key is crucial for both message encryption and decryption, posing a security challenge in key distribution. Seeking a solution, in 1977, MIT researchers Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adelman devised a groundbreaking public-key encryption method known as RSA (initials of Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman – its three developers). This method utilized a one-way mathematical function based on the multiplication of prime numbers, ensuring that the original solution couldn’t be retrieved. RSA employs two distinct but mathematically linked keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption, eliminating the need for key distribution. Recognized globally, RSA Cryptography is a cornerstone in securing online communication, e-commerce, and confidential data in transactions. Its significance extends beyond practical use, garnering attention from mathematicians, companies, governments, and intelligence agencies. The RSA method has become a fundamental and nearly exclusive element in safeguarding computer information and electronic commerce.
Among his numerous additional contributions to information security, Shamir introduced the groundbreaking secret-sharing method. This technique transforms secrets into sets of random numbers, requiring a specific combination to reconstruct the original secret, forming the basis for secure computations. Collaborating with peers, he advanced identification and signature methods through zero-knowledge proofs and devised the ring signature for group-based encryption. Shamir’s ingenuity extended to TV broadcast encryption, allowing encrypted transmissions exclusively for paying recipients. In recent years, his research delved into T-functions, intricate mathematical tools for information encryption. Shamir’s impact also extends to exposing vulnerabilities in encryption systems, developing general mathematical methods for attacks, and pioneering Side Channel Attacks on hardware and software implementations. Beyond information security, his contributions resonate in core computer science, notably shaping the theory of computational complexity.
Adi Shamir is awarded the Wolf Prize for being a truly exceptional scientist and has been the leading force in transforming cryptography into a scientific discipline that is heavily based on Mathematics. His foundational discoveries combine mathematical ingenuity with a range of analytical tools. They had a huge impact on several mathematical areas, advancing both mathematics and society in an unparalleled manner.

José-Alain Sahel

Affiliation at the time of the award:

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, USA

Sorbonne Université, France

Award citation:

“for sight-saving and vision restoration to blind people using optogenetics”.

Prize share:

José-Alain Sahel

Botond Roska

Jose-Alain Sahel (born in 1955, Algeria) is the chair and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, director of the UPMC Vision Institute, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology and Exceptional Class Professor of Ophthalmology – Sorbonne Université.

Professor Sahel’s journey is a testament to the power of passion and dedication. He was deeply influenced by his parents, both educators, who instilled in him humanist principles and fostered a broad intellectual curiosity. Excelling across various subjects at school, Sahel displayed a natural aptitude for mathematics and physics, guided by his teachers toward the most advanced scientific pursuits. Alongside his scientific acumen, he harbored a profound appreciation for poetry and philosophy. It was this unique blend of interests that led him to choose a career in medicine.

Dr. Sahel studied medicine at the University Denis Diderot, Paris VII, and Ophthalmology at Louis Pasteur Strasbourg University. He received his medical degree with a Medal of the Faculty of Paris and obtained his specialty certification in ophthalmology. He completed a residency in Ophthalmology at the Louis Pasteur University Hospital in Strasbourg. He also was a research fellow at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a visiting scholar in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University.  Dr. Sahel founded and directed the Vision Institute in Paris (2008- 2020) and is currently chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and professor at the Sorbonne’s Medical School.

Botond Roska (born in 1969, Hungary), professor at the University of Basel and director at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), is a world-renowned expert in the structure and function of retinal circuits in health and disease.

Roska is the son of a musician and a computer scientist. Initially, he pursued a musical path, learning the cello and enrolling at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1985 to 1989. However, an unfortunate hand injury disrupted his cello career, leading him to redirect his focus toward medicine and mathematics.

Roska earned his M.D. degree from the Semmelweis University Medical School. He pursued a Ph.D. in neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, and furthered his studies in genetics and virology at Harvard University Medical School. In 2005, he established a research group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel. By 2010, Roska became a Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel. Currently, he serves as a founding director at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB).

The global scale of visual impairment is staggering, with 217 million people having moderate to severe vision impairment and 36 million are blind. When light hits the retina (a layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye), special cells in the retina known as photoreceptors, convert the light into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the brain, where they are transformed into the images we see. Most visual disorders can be traced back to inherited and age-dependent defects in the retina. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic eye disease where loss of photoreceptors can lead to complete blindness. It can be triggered by defects in approximately 70 different genes and has been considered incurable until now. It is possible that the illness can be treated at an early stage by employing virus-based gene replacement therapy or by gene editing. However, this is no longer possible once blindness has become complete. Blind people lost their eye photoreceptors making the search for a solution a complex task.

Dr. Sahel is renowned for his studies on retinal genetic and complex age-related diseases leading to photoreceptor cell death and irreversible vision loss, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). His team demonstrated the feasibility of using the photoactivatable optogene halorhodopsin delivered by a viral vector for partial vision restoration in animal and human models of retinal degeneration.

Roska developed a robust technology for cell-type targeted gene therapy and vision restoration in retinas. His laboratory generated the first single-cell transcriptome-based gene expression atlas for the human retina and choroid and then created human retinal organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells, establishing methods to generate large quantities of functional human retinal cells for optimizing gene therapy approaches ex vivo. In 2008, Roska—using gene ferries—succeeded in injecting light-sensitive channel proteins from green algae into the retinal cells of blind mice, thus giving the rodents a rudimentary form of sight.  He customized a technology to sensitize specific cell types in the eye to near-infrared light using the photoactivatable optogene channelrhodopsin ChrimsonR and demonstrated restoration of light responses in blind mice.

The two scientists met in 2001 while Roska was studying for a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology in Berkeley, US. He had come to Strasbourg, France, to spend a month at Louis Pasteur University, where Sahel was then a laboratory director. This meeting began a long and complementary collaboration trying to reactivate photoreceptor cells in blind human retina and restore their functionality.

In a breakthrough study published in Nature Medicine in May 2021, Roska and Sahel reported the first blind patient who partially regained vision. They demonstrated the feasibility of partial vision restoration using optogenetic therapy and engineered goggles. A retinitis pigmentosa patient whose vision had been limited to rudimentary light perception regained the ability to recognize, count, locate, and touch different objects using the treated eye, following dedicated rehabilitation protocols.

While optogenetics has a nearly 20-year history in neuroscience, Sahel and Roska’s work marked the first proof-of-concept for optogenetics in any human disease and a milestone in the treatment of blinding conditions that affect millions of people worldwide.

Botond Roska and José-Alain Sahel are awarded the Wolf Prize for collectively pioneering a novel vision restoration approach by designing and applying optogenetic technology to render surviving neurons in the eye light-sensitive, functionally replacing photoreceptors lost to damage and genetic disease. This combination of powerful fundamental human neurobiological discovery research of Roska, with a deep knowledge of the clinical and translational ophthalmology of Sahel, has led to a major milestone in the fight against blindness and in the field of optogenetics more broadly.

Botond Roska

Affiliation at the time of the award:

Institute of Molecular and Clinical

Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), Switzerland

Award citation:

“for sight-saving and vision restoration to blind people using optogenetics”.

Prize share:

Botond Roska

José-Alain Sahel

Jose-Alain Sahel (born in 1955, Algeria) is the chair and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, director of the UPMC Vision Institute, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology and Exceptional Class Professor of Ophthalmology – Sorbonne Université.

Professor Sahel’s journey is a testament to the power of passion and dedication. He was deeply influenced by his parents, both educators, who instilled in him humanist principles and fostered a broad intellectual curiosity. Excelling across various subjects at school, Sahel displayed a natural aptitude for mathematics and physics, guided by his teachers toward the most advanced scientific pursuits. Alongside his scientific acumen, he harbored a profound appreciation for poetry and philosophy. It was this unique blend of interests that led him to choose a career in medicine.

Dr. Sahel studied medicine at the University Denis Diderot, Paris VII, and Ophthalmology at Louis Pasteur Strasbourg University. He received his medical degree with a Medal of the Faculty of Paris and obtained his specialty certification in ophthalmology. He completed a residency in Ophthalmology at the Louis Pasteur University Hospital in Strasbourg. He also was a research fellow at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a visiting scholar in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University.  Dr. Sahel founded and directed the Vision Institute in Paris (2008- 2020) and is currently chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and professor at the Sorbonne’s Medical School.

Botond Roska (born in 1969, Hungary), professor at the University of Basel and director at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), is a world-renowned expert in the structure and function of retinal circuits in health and disease.

Roska is the son of a musician and a computer scientist. Initially, he pursued a musical path, learning the cello and enrolling at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1985 to 1989. However, an unfortunate hand injury disrupted his cello career, leading him to redirect his focus toward medicine and mathematics.

Roska earned his M.D. degree from the Semmelweis University Medical School. He pursued a Ph.D. in neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, and furthered his studies in genetics and virology at Harvard University Medical School. In 2005, he established a research group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel. By 2010, Roska became a Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel. Currently, he serves as a founding director at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB).

The global scale of visual impairment is staggering, with 217 million people having moderate to severe vision impairment and 36 million are blind. When light hits the retina (a layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye), special cells in the retina known as photoreceptors, convert the light into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the brain, where they are transformed into the images we see. Most visual disorders can be traced back to inherited and age-dependent defects in the retina. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic eye disease where loss of photoreceptors can lead to complete blindness. It can be triggered by defects in approximately 70 different genes and has been considered incurable until now. It is possible that the illness can be treated at an early stage by employing virus-based gene replacement therapy or by gene editing. However, this is no longer possible once blindness has become complete. Blind people lost their eye photoreceptors making the search for a solution a complex task.

Dr. Sahel is renowned for his studies on retinal genetic and complex age-related diseases leading to photoreceptor cell death and irreversible vision loss, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). His team demonstrated the feasibility of using the photoactivatable optogene halorhodopsin delivered by a viral vector for partial vision restoration in animal and human models of retinal degeneration.

Roska developed a robust technology for cell-type targeted gene therapy and vision restoration in retinas. His laboratory generated the first single-cell transcriptome-based gene expression atlas for the human retina and choroid and then created human retinal organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells, establishing methods to generate large quantities of functional human retinal cells for optimizing gene therapy approaches ex vivo. In 2008, Roska—using gene ferries—succeeded in injecting light-sensitive channel proteins from green algae into the retinal cells of blind mice, thus giving the rodents a rudimentary form of sight.  He customized a technology to sensitize specific cell types in the eye to near-infrared light using the photoactivatable optogene channelrhodopsin ChrimsonR and demonstrated restoration of light responses in blind mice.

The two scientists met in 2001 while Roska was studying for a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology in Berkeley, US. He had come to Strasbourg, France, to spend a month at Louis Pasteur University, where Sahel was then a laboratory director. This meeting began a long and complementary collaboration trying to reactivate photoreceptor cells in blind human retina and restore their functionality.

In a breakthrough study published in Nature Medicine in May 2021, Roska and Sahel reported the first blind patient who partially regained vision. They demonstrated the feasibility of partial vision restoration using optogenetic therapy and engineered goggles. A retinitis pigmentosa patient whose vision had been limited to rudimentary light perception regained the ability to recognize, count, locate, and touch different objects using the treated eye, following dedicated rehabilitation protocols.

While optogenetics has a nearly 20-year history in neuroscience, Sahel and Roska’s work marked the first proof-of-concept for optogenetics in any human disease and a milestone in the treatment of blinding conditions that affect millions of people worldwide.

Botond Roska and José-Alain Sahel are awarded the Wolf Prize for collectively pioneering a novel vision restoration approach by designing and applying optogenetic technology to render surviving neurons in the eye light-sensitive, functionally replacing photoreceptors lost to damage and genetic disease. This combination of powerful fundamental human neurobiological discovery research of Roska, with a deep knowledge of the clinical and translational ophthalmology of Sahel, has led to a major milestone in the fight against blindness and in the field of optogenetics more broadly.

Elliot M. Meyerowitz

Affiliation at the time of the award:

Caltech and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA

Award citation:

“for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvements”.

Prize share:

Elliot M. Meyerowitz

Joanne Chory

Venkatesan Sundaresan

Elliot Meyerowitz (born in 1951, USA) is the George Beadle Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at the California Institute of Technology.

Meyerowitz was naturally drawn to science. He grew up surrounded by relatives with a scientific background and was exposed to scientific literature from an early age. When he was in high school, he participated in a research
program of the National Science Foundation.
Encouraged by his chemistry teacher, Mrs. Diamond, Meyerowitz obtained an undergraduate degree in Biology from Columbia University, New York, followed by a Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University. His research focused on developmental genetics and studied the complex mechanisms of cell development, combining classical genetic methods with emerging molecular techniques. His postdoctoral work at Stanford School of Medicine, under Prof. David Hogans, further honed his skills, laying the foundation for his groundbreaking contributions to the field. Meyerowitz’s curiosity and exposure to diverse scientific environments fueled his commitment to deciphering the complexities of developmental biology. In 1980, he joined the California Institute of Technology – Caltech, as a faculty member, where he remains working to date. From 2000 to 2010, he was Chair of the Caltech Division of Biology. From 2011 to 2012, while on leave from Caltech, he served as the Inaugural Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and as Professor of Plant Morphodynamics at Cambridge. His lab at Caltech focuses on unraveling the mechanisms underlying plant development.
Elliot Meyerowitz has made a series of key discoveries in plant development and hormone biology.
The Meyerowitz laboratory pioneered the use of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model plant for research in molecular biology, genetics, and developmental biology. Meyerowitz and his co-workers developed the ABC model describing the molecular and developmental basis for flower structure merely from mutant analysis. This remarkably simple model still holds after more than 30 years and has been shown to be valid across the spectrum of all flowering plants, including cereals. A consequence of the development of this model and of the molecular cloning of the floral homeotic genes (which control the pattern of flower formation and early embryonic development), in which Meyerowitz has also been a leader, is that the structure and architecture of flowers can now be changed in a predictable way.
Meyerowitz and co-workers discovered and characterized the first receptor for a plant hormone, the receptor for ethylene, giving agricultural and horticultural scientists a path toward control of plant senescence and fruit ripening. The Meyerowitz group provided the first mechanistic description of, and model for, cell-cell communication in plants’ growing tips (shoot apical meristem). They showed that the stem cell population at the tip of the shoot communicated to the cells below by use of an extracellular peptide ligand, signaling to a transmembrane receptor kinase. Signaling peptides are now known to be a primary mode of cell-to-cell communication in plants. These scientific breakthroughs provide key knowledge for the development of improved and more sustainable crop production.
Elliot Meyerowitz is awarded the Wolf Prize for having made many outstanding and seminal contributions to the field of genetics and our understanding of the molecular basis of plant growth and development. He solved the century-old mystery of how plants create specific leaf and flower patterns, and his laboratory cloned and characterized many of these genes. He found the first-ever receptor for a plant hormone and was the first to clone and sequence an Arabidopsis gene. He was instrumental in promoting Arabidopsis thaliana as a ‘model organism’ used by researchers investigating plant biology and genetics across the globe. His fundamental conceptual contributions to the field of molecular genetics and plant morphogenesis have opened the field of modern plant science.

Joanne Chory

Affiliation at the time of the award:

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA

Award citation:

“for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvements”.

Prize share:

Joanne Chory

Elliot M. Meyerowitz

Venkatesan Sundaresan

Joanne Chory (born in 1955, USA), a plant geneticist, is the Director of the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator. Recognized as one of the most influential plant biologists of the modern era, Chory studies the genetic codes of plants and uses plants to help fight climate change.
Adaptation is the phenotypic change by which an organism becomes better suited to its environment. This may happen through a combination of genetic adaptation and plasticity. Chory studies the way in which plants respond to environmental changes with an emphasis on changes in composition and light intensity. These allow the plants to distinguish between seasons and produce information about their location relative to the light source and to other plants (as in the case of competition with neighboring plants for photosynthetic light). According to the light conditions, plants will adjust their growth rate, the rate of photosynthesis, and flowering time. While this response is important for the plant’s survival, it may lead to a decrease in yield, for example, if crops grow at a high density.
Chory and her coworkers have determined several molecular pathways that explain how plants adapt to and grow optimally in diverse environments. These days, they use this knowledge to tackle climate change, an urgent threat to the rapidly growing human population. Chory’s studies are important for attaining food security in various environments and when yields are compromised by global climate change.
Chory has made important discoveries on the mechanisms of plant growth, development, and response to the environment. She and her team comprehensively dissected light signaling pathways through a combination of molecular genetics, biochemistry, ‘omics techniques, and elegant cell biology. They discovered a negative growth regulation, acting in the absence of light, which controls leaf and chloroplast development and photo-regulated gene expression in dicotyledonous plants. The identification of specific repressor proteins that were antagonized by the absorption of light by photoreceptors was a seminal discovery. This revolutionized photomorphogenesis and light signaling fields.

More broadly, this finding translates into the hugely agronomically important trait of shade avoidance, which is thought to be the major trait underpinning increased maize yields. In addition, follow-up studies in several laboratories found that these genes also play an important role in human cells.
The team uncovered the signaling pathway for brassinosteroids. Chory and her coworkers have also made major contributions to understanding auxin and cytokinin biosynthesis and function, nuclear/chloroplast interactions and retrograde signaling, circadian (biological clock) regulation of growth, and natural variation of adaptation.
Chorey’s latest research deals with inducing plants to increase the accumulation of carbon dioxide in their roots. Despite efforts to reduce carbon emissions to avoid extreme climate change and curb global warming, the solution may come from the other direction, namely by lowering carbon dioxide levels from the air and storing it for the long term. In light of the fact that plants already know how to utilize carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Chorey’s lab is studying how to engineer plants so that they manage to accumulate more carbon dioxide in their roots. Such plants, if planted on a large scale, could remove enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and may lead to a solution to this critical effect of climate change.
Joanne Chory is awarded the Wolf Prize for her contributions to plant developmental biology that have paved the way for current novel work and for major advances in understanding processes key for crop improvement: light signaling, hormone signaling, shade avoidance, flowering time, growth regulation, and disease resistance.

Martin Rees

Affiliation at the time of the award:

Cambridge University, England

Award citation:

“for fundamental contributions to high-energy astrophysics, galaxies and structure formation, and cosmology”.

Prize share:

None

Lord Martin Rees (born in England in 1942) is one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of our time, with seminal contributions in a large number of areas, from cosmology and the formation of the first stars and galaxies to high-energy astrophysics, to the formation and evolution of massive black holes in the centers of galaxies, tidal disruption of stars in the vicinity of such black holes, and more. These contributions shaped our deepest understanding of the Universe.

From a young age, with a strong background in mathematics, Rees discovered his attraction to astrophysics, which was, at that time, one of the fastest-growing areas of science, full of unexplained phenomena waiting to be explored. His first position as a professor at Sussex University, in 1973, soon brought him to the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, where he became the director of the institute, the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, and the Master of Trinity College. In later years, Rees became a Fellow, then the Royal Society President, and a House of Lords member in 2005. Since 1995, he has held the honorary title “The UK’s Astronomer Royal”.
Marin Rees has pioneered many ideas that are shaping our understanding of the Universe. In cosmology, he was the first to propose polarization measurements as a tool to probe the origin of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. This is now accepted as a key diagnostic tool of the very early universe. He was also an initiator of the field of 21cm cosmology, now becoming a very important tool for understanding the conditions in the universe prior to the birth of the first stars and galaxies. Another area where he made fundamental contributions is high-energy astrophysics. This includes the explanation of the physical processes driving extremely powerful Gamma-ray bursts from colliding neutron stars and a certain type of supernova, as well as the understanding of powerful radio jets from various types of galaxies. Later observations have confirmed Rees’s early theoretical works on the properties of such objects. Massive black holes in the centers of galaxies have been another area where Rees made numerous fundamental contributions, from suggesting various ways to explain the formation of individual black holes to ideas of how they produce their extremely high luminosity that can exceed the luminosity of entire galaxies and how the black hole population in the universe evolves in parallel to the cosmic evolution of galaxies. Such theoretical ideas are now being studied and confirmed by the most advanced ground-based and space borne telescopes. Other theoretical papers that have become timely because of recent observations are binary black hole mergers and the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes, which have been discovered in dozens of galaxies.
Marin Rees is well known for his unusual ability to convey complex scientific concepts to the public. Over the years, he has delivered hundreds of public lectures and television interviews. He has written numerous general articles and popular science books on cosmology, life in the universe, black holes, and other topics of 21st-century science. The title of his recent book, from 2022, is “If Science is to Save Us.” In recent years, he has been spending much of his time in efforts to safeguard the global environment. He co-founded the “Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge,” an interdisciplinary research center that studies existential risks and fosters a global community to safeguard humanity.
Martin Rees is awarded the Wolf Prize for shaping our deepest understanding of the Universe. His outstanding contributions range from high-energy astrophysics, including mechanisms for gamma-ray bursts, powerful radio jets, and black hole formation in galactic nuclei, to cosmic structure formation and the physics of the earliest stars and galaxies at the end of the “dark age.” He was the first to propose polarization measurements as a tool to probe the origin of fluctuations and anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and an initiator of the field of 21cm cosmology.

György Kurtág

Award citation:

“for his contribution to the world’s cultural heritage, which is fundamentally inspirational and human”.

Prize share:

None

György Kurtág, (born in 1926, in Lugo, Romania) is a renowned Hungarian composer celebrated for his avant-garde contributions to contemporary classical music. Kurtág started playing the piano at the age of 5 with Klára Vojkicza-Peia. His professional musical journey began at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 1946, where he studied piano and composition under the guidance of renowned mentors, including Pál Kadosa (piano), Leó Weiner (chamber music), Sándor Veress, and subsequently, Ferenc Farkas (composition). Kurtág obtained his degree in piano and chamber music in 1951 and in composition in 1955. His early musical education, which was influenced by Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, laid the foundation for a career marked by a profound connection to Hungarian folk traditions and a commitment to modernist innovation.
From 1960 to 1968, Kurtág served as a répétiteur for soloists at the National Concert Bureau. In 1967, he received an invitation to instruct at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, initially as an assistant to Pál Kadosa in piano and later as a teacher of chamber music. Though he officially retired in 1986, Kurtág continued to conduct classes regularly until 1993. Since then, and up to the present day, he has conducted chamber music courses in numerous European countries and the United States. Throughout his illustrious career, Kurtág has crafted a unique musical language, blending elements of modernism with a deep emotional resonance. He composed a diverse range of works, including chamber music, vocal compositions, and orchestral pieces. Notable among these is “Játékok” (Games), a monumental collection that showcases his exploration of musical language and experimentation with form.
Kurtág’s collaboration with his wife, Márta Kurtág, a pianist, has been a defining aspect of his artistic journey. Their partnership has yielded remarkable interpretations of his compositions, offering audiences a nuanced understanding of his intricate musical world. Kurtag and his wife participate in recitals where they perform pieces from the piano series “Játékok” (Games) alternating with Kurtág’s transcriptions of Bach compositions. Kurtág is one of the most sought after contemporary composers, with a prolific career marked by numerous performances. Throughout his extensive journey, he has held the prestigious position of composer-in-residence with esteemed orchestras, concert halls, theatres, and ensembles. Notable among these affiliations are the Berlin Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Dutch National Opera, and Ensemble InterContemporain.
Kurtág’s impact on contemporary classical music is profound. His influence extends globally, and his compositions are performed and revered by musicians and audiences alike, earning him international recognition and accolades. Kurtág’s works exhibit intensity and a keen sense of introspection, capturing the essence of human experience in condensed yet emotionally charged musical expressions. His contributions have earned him numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. His compositions challenge conventional boundaries and expand the possibilities of musical expression. As a venerable figure in the world of modern music, Kurtág’s legacy extends beyond his compositions. He has served as an inspiring teacher, influencing generations of musicians and composers. His commitment to pushing the boundaries of musical exploration and a deep connection to his Hungarian roots establishes Kurtág as a luminary in the pantheon of 20th and 21st-century classical composers.
György Kurtág is awarded the Wolf Prize for presenting a shining example of a true musician and a human being. His music, which deals with the existential questions of the human soul, focuses on fundamental emotions such as love and sorrow, fear, anxiety, despair, and a desire for harmony and reconciliation. His art ranges from small forms, such as his short piano works, to a large-scale cantata or opera, and it reflects the past and present of the entire history of Western music. Kurtág’s immense influence on numerous musicians is simply magical. His scholarly environment has always been lucky to absorb from him a unique spirit of devotion to music, structural thinking and harmony and hence experiencing his tutorial work as a torch of humanity.