Ada Yonath, an innovative structural biologist and x-ray crystallographer, passed away on August 31 at the age of 87. Born in Jerusalem in 1939 to parents who immigrated from Poland, Yonath displayed an early fascination with the world around her, as evidenced by her attempts at five years old to measure her apartment’s ceiling height, resulting in a broken arm. Despite facing financial difficulties after her father’s passing, she devoted herself to her education, achieving degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, followed by a doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science.<\/p>\n
Yonath’s unyielding quest for knowledge led her to create Israel’s inaugural protein crystallography lab at the Weizmann Institute, where she focused her career on the ribosome. Her pioneering research in crystallizing ribosomes opened new avenues in understanding protein biosynthesis and developing antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009. Yonath became the first woman to receive this accolade in chemistry in 45 years.<\/p>\n
Over her career, Yonath occupied notable positions, including directing the Weizmann Institute’s Center for Structural Biology and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter. Her contributions were widely acknowledged, with more than 200 published papers and citations surpassing 16,000.<\/p>\n
Renowned for her intellectual bravery, Yonath encouraged aspiring scientists to trust their instincts rather than seek counsel, prioritizing curiosity over conventional wisdom. Her legacy as an inspirational figure, particularly for women in the scientific field, goes beyond her academic accomplishments. She maintained that it was societal attitudes, rather than ability, that hindered women’s progress in science.<\/p>\n
In addition to her Nobel Prize, Yonath was honored with numerous awards, including the Israel Prize in Chemistry, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and the Linus Pauling Gold Medal. Her contributions have profoundly reshaped the scientific comprehension of life’s molecular foundations and continue to motivate future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ada Yonath, an innovative structural biologist and x-ray crystallographer, passed away on August 31 at the age of 87. Born in Jerusalem in 1939 to parents who immigrated from Poland, Yonath displayed an early fascination with the world around her, as evidenced by her attempts at five years old to measure her apartment’s ceiling height, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":375786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-375785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-source-chemistryworld-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/375786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}