Leaders in their Fields

The Israel-based Wolf Foundation was established in 1976 by Dr. Ricardo Wolf, a Jew born in Germany who became an inventor, diplomat and philanthropist. Two years later, the first Wolf Prizes were awarded, "for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people irrespective of nationality, race, color, religion, sex or political view."

Five prizes - of $100,000 each - are awarded each year, four in scientific fields and one in a field of the arts. The science prizes rotate among the fields of agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine and physics, and the arts prize is awarded in architecture, music, painting or sculpture. An international selection committee, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Education, chooses the winners. To date, a total of 194 scientists and artists from 19 countries have been honored with Wolf Prizes.

The Wolf Foundation has a remarkable ability to select outstanding winners: to date some twenty past recipients have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Prize in their field. In fact, having won a Nobel Prize is the only attribute that disqualifies a scientist or artist from being awarded the Wolf Prize. Over the years, Wolf Prize laureates have included Americas Carl Djerassi (Medicine); Frances Marc Chagall (Painting); Britains Dr. Stephen Hawking (Physics); Israel Philharmonic Orchestra musical director Zubin Mehta (Music); and Egypts Ahmed Zewail (Chemistry), who later won the Nobel Prize for his work on laser chemistry.

The prizes are awarded by the President of Israel at his residence in Jerusalem each May. "In order to receive the prize, the winner must attend the ceremony in Jerusalem," explains Yaron Gruder, Director General of the Wolf Foundation. "However, some rare exceptions have been made."

Gruder recounts that Izrail Gelfand, a Russian mathematician who was awarded the Wolf Prize in 1978 for his work on functional analysis and group representation, was prohibited by the Soviet government from attending the prize-giving ceremony in Jerusalem. "It was a very moving occasion when, ten years later - during Glasnost - Gelfand was finally able to come to Jerusalem and receive his prize in person," recollects Gruder.

Another exception was made for Yasutomi Nishizuka. Several days before he was due to receive the 1994 medicine prize for his work on cellular trans-membrane signaling, a devastating earthquake struck his native Kobe in Japan. "He apologized and explained that he could not leave home at such a difficult time," says Gruder. "Of course we understood, and the prize was presented to him by the Ambassador of Israel to Japan. Mr. Yasutomi donated the prize money to victims of the earthquake."

Many other laureates have generously donated their prize money to worthy causes. The German painter Anselm Kiefer, who won the arts prize in 1990, immediately returned his check so that a scholarship fund could be set up for young Israeli artists.

This year, Dr. Gurdev Khush of the International Rice Institute in the Philippines was awarded the agriculture prize for his work on plant genetics; Prof. Albert Cotton of the Texas A&M University received the chemistry prize for his research into transition chemistry; Prof. Raoul Bott of Harvard University and Prof. Jean-Pierre Serre of the College de France in Paris shared the mathematics prize; Prof. Raymond Davis Jr. of Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S.A. and Prof. Masatoshi Koshiba of the University of Tokyo shared the physics prize; and Maestro Pierre Boulez, Director of the Institute of Musical Research at the Pompidou Center in Paris, and Maestro Riccardo Muti, Principal Conductor of the Scala Philharmonic Orchestra in Milan, shared the music prize.