Israeli Nobel Prizer winner Professor Ada Yonath has passed away at 87
Professor Ada Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry for her work in the study of ribosome structure using crystallography
Nobel and Israel Prize winner Professor Ada Yonath passed away on August 31, 2026, at age 87.
Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 2002 Israel Prize, as well as a multitude of other international prizes for her work in advancing chemistry.
Yonath's work focused on understanding how proteins work, in particular, on developing methods of analysis that allowed scientists to understand how proteins interact with one another.
She pioneered the study of ribosome structure using crystallography, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Her critical work at the Weizmann Institute led to numerous later discoveries that improved antibiotics and helped develop more advanced antibiotics in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is expected to become one of the biggest medical challenges of the 21st century.
When Yonath began her research, most scientists deemed it impossible, but she continued her research despite widespread skepticism in the scientific community. “People called me a dreamer,” she recalled.
In addition to her position at the Weizmann Institute, she was also a member of multiple US, Israeli, and European scientific societies, including the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Weizmann Institute President Prof. Alon Chen said in her memory, "Ada was an exceptional scientist who never hesitated to choose a path that others considered impossible and to pursue it for decades with determination, curiosity, and courage."
Yonath was also a symbol of scientific excellence and the pursuit of knowledge. "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," Chen continued.