The European Crystallographic Association has awarded the first European Crystallography Prize to Professor Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovoth, Israel and the Max-Planck Research Unit for Ribosomal Research, DESY, Hamburg, Germany, for her pioneering achievements in structural studies on the ribosome, the universal cellular organelle on which protein biosynthesis takes place.
The European Crystallography Prize has been presented at the 19th European Crystallography Meeting in Nancy, France, August 25-31, at which Professor Yonath described the work for which she is being honored.
Professor Yonath was born in Jerusalem and received her Ph.D. under the direction of Prof. Wolfie Traub at the Weizmann Institute, where she is the incumbent of the Martin A. Kimmel Chair in Structural Biology and Head of the Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Assemblie s. Her pioneering work over many years in pursuit of the ribosome structure which she has orchestrated on an international scale, has been concentrated in Europe, with a significant portion her activity centered at the Max-Planck Research Unit in Hamburg, which she also heads.