FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2001

The 2001 Wolf Prizes in Sciences and Arts awarded by the President of the State, Mr. Moshe Katsav, at a special ceremony, in Jerusalem.

The Wolf Prize in Agriculture went to Professor Roger N. Beachy, 56, from the Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri, and to Professor James E. Womack, 60, Texas A&M University, USA, for the use of recombinant DNA technology to revolutionize plant and animal sciences.

The Prize in Chemistry was shared by Professor Henri B. Kagan, 70, from University of Paris-South, France; Professor Ryoji Noyori, 62, from Nagoya University, Japan, and Professor K. Barry Sharpless, 60, from Scripps Research Institute, California, USA, for their pioneering, creative and crucial work in developing methods for the synthesis of chiral molecules. Their work provided the means for efficient industrial and laboratory preparations of important pharmaceutical products and fine chemicals needed for our daily life.

The Prize in Mathematics was awarded to Professor Vladimir I. Arnold, 63, from the Steklov Mathematical Institute, Moscow, Russia, and University of Paris-Dauphine, Paris, France, for his deep and influential work in a multitude of areas of mathematics, including dynamical systems, differential equations, and singularity theory, and to Professor Saharon Shelah, 55, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for his many fundamental contributions to mathematical logic and set theory, and their applications within other parts of mathematics.

The Prize in Medicine was shared by Avram Hershko, 63, from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel, and Alexander Varshavsky, 54, from the California Institute of Technology, USA, for their discovery of the ubiquitin system of intracellular protein degradation and the crucial functions of this system in cellular regulation.

The Wolf Prize in Arts (this year Architecture) is conferred upon Architect Alvaro Siza, 67, of Porto, Portugal, for the critical relevance of his typically responsive architecture to the continual transformation of both landscape and urban fabric.

Five annual Wolf Prizes, of $100,000 in each area, have been awarded since 1978, to outstanding scientists and artists, "for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples, irrespective of nationality, race, color, religion, sex, or political view."