Jerusalem – Six Scientists Honored With Prestigious Wolf Prize

Jerusalem – Six renowned scientists and music greats win this year’s Wolf Prize — considered second only to the Nobel Prize in prestige and one that has often served as predictor of the Nobel — on Sunday at the Knesset.

Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem received his prize in the physics category; California Institute of Technology Prof. Michael Aschbacher and University of Texas at Austin’s Prof. Luis A. Caffarelli were Wolf Prize laureates in the math category; Prof. Ronald M. Evans of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, in medicine; University of California at Berkeley Prof. A. Paul Alivisatos and Harvard University’s Prof. Charles Leiber shared the chemistry prize.

Berlin Philharmonic conductor Sir Simon Rattle and renowned tenor and conductor Placido Domingo — both of whom could not attend due to previous commitments — received the 2012 Wolf Prize for the Arts.

Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin and Education Minister MK Gideon Sa’ar, who is chairman of the Wolf Foundation, attended the ceremony.

President Shimon Peres, who was supposed to present the awards, was at home recovering from minor surgery.