Jewish Recipients of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry

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Listed below are recipients of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry who were, or are, Jewish (or of half-Jewish descent, as noted). The Wolf Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards in chemistry. Approximately one-fifth of its recipients have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Carl Djerassi (1978)
Herman Mark¹ (1979)
John Polanyi² (1982)
Rudoph Marcus (1984/5)
Joshua Jortner (1988)
Raphael Levine (1988)
Alexander Pines (1991)
Richard Lerner (1994/5)
Gilbert Stork³ (1995/6)
Samuel Danishefsky (1995/6)
Gabor Somorjai⁴ (1998)
Henri Kagan (2001)
Richard Zare (2005)
George Feher (2006/7)
Ada Yonath (2006/7)
Allen Bard (2008)

NOTES
1. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother. See, e.g., the last paragraph of the section entitled "I.G. FARBENINDUSTRIE" at http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/hmark.html.
2. Son of the Hungarian Jewish physical chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. See also Ismerjük''oket?: zsidó származású nevezetes magyarok arcképcsarnoka, by István Reményi Gyenes (Ex Libris, Budapest, 1997).
3. See interview in Candid Science III: More Conversations with Famous Chemists, by Istvan Hargittai (Imperial College Press, London, 2003, p. 117).
4. See story by Leslie Katz entitled "Chemist, Shoah survivor nets Wolf Prize" in The Jewish News Weekly (formerly THE JEWISH BULLETIN) of Northern California, 30 January, 1998: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/7488/chemist-shoah-survivor-nets-wolf-prize.

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