Honoring Israeli Nobel Prize Winner Ada Yonath

Honored in 2009 with a Nobel Prize in chemistry for her groundbreaking research on ribosome crystals, Professor Ada Yonath was one of Israel’s greatest scientific minds and the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel prize. Her work focused on how proteins functioned and she pioneered the study of ribosome structure using crystallography.

When she first began her research, according to news release from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, most scientists said it was impossible, but she continued her work at Weizmann and became a symbol of scientific excellence. Her later work focused on antibiotics and the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Honoring Her Memory
Yonath passed away on August 31, 2026. She was 87. She is survived by her daughter Hagit and granddaughter Noa. Her death was reported by the Weizmann Institute, her professional home.

“Ada’s legacy extends far beyond her scientific achievements. She showed generations of scientists what can be accomplished when one dares to ask big questions and persists in the search for answers,” Weizmann Institute president professor Alon Chen said in her memory.

“Ada was an Institute Professor – the highest title the Weizmann Institute bestows on a select group of outstanding scientists – and she continued to conduct research and publish papers, run an active laboratory, and maintain scientific collaborations until the very last days of her life.”

Her Amazing Trajectory
Yonath was born in Jerusalem in 1939 and moved to Tel Aviv when she was 12. She became a math tutor to afford her high school tuition reported The Times of Israel. She attended Hebrew University to receive a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s in biochemistry.

She earned a PHD at Weizman and then moved to the US for postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Mellon University and MIT. When Yonath returned to Israel in the 1970s, she founded the first protein crystallography laboratory in Israel at Weizman.

She was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and other prestigious international institutions.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog eulogized  Yonath  and said that that she was a “globally pathbreaking woman, a pioneer who proved that curiosity, devotion to a goal and uncompromising determination can break the bounds of human knowledge.

“Professor Yonath was able to realize this aspiration while serving as an inspiration to many men and women. We will remember her for her modesty, originality of thought and for being a role model and inspiration to generations of scientists in Israel and around the world.”