Dr. Yonath, the Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professor of Structural Biology and director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure at the Weizmann Institute, will be honored for her structural studies of the ribosome the tiny but complex molecular machine responsible for the production of proteins, the building blocks of life, within cells.

"We are pleased to continue our Horwitz tradition by awarding this year's prize to Ada Yonath," said David Hirsh, Ph.D., executive vice president for research at Columbia University. "She has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the molecular basis of protein synthesis--one of the most fundamental processes carried out by living cells."

"I am delighted to receive such a prestigious and enduring honor--one that will allow me to share my life's work with some of the most distinguished scientific minds in the United States," said Dr. Yonath. "As a Horwitz Prize winner, I will be joining an amazing group of scientists and scholars, whose contributions to the world of discovery are both breathtaking and unsurpassed. I am truly thrilled and deeply flattered to be counted among them."

Awarded annually since 1967, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize was established to recognize outstanding contributions to basic research in the fields of biology and biochemistry. The prize was named for the mother of Columbia benefactor S. Gross Horwitz. Louisa Gross Horwitz was daughter of Dr. Samuel David Gross, author of "A System of Surgery" and a founder of the American Medical Association.

The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize Lectures, where Dr. Yonath will give presentations about her research, will be held on Monday, Nov. 21, 2005. The first lecture w
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Contact: Elizabeth Streich
eas2125@columbia.edu
212-305-6535
Columbia University Medical Center
15-Nov-2005