Gad Avigad (; born 1930) is an Israeli
biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...
.
Biography
Avigad was born in 1930 in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. He studied at the
Hebrew University High School.
At 17, he joined the ranks of the
Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...
. He studied at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
, receiving a doctorate in 1958.
Avigad was Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Hebrew University and, in 1967, moved to the United States and taught at the
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Health, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Robert Wood Johnson University ...
in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
.
Awards
In 1957, Avigad was awarded the
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor.
History
Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...
, in
exact science
The exact sciences or quantitative sciences, sometimes called the exact mathematical sciences, are those sciences "which admit of absolute precision in their results"; especially the mathematical sciences. Examples of the exact sciences are ma ...
s, jointly with
Shlomo Hestrin and
David Sidney Feingold, with whom he studied.
Personal life
Gad is the son of Israeli archeologist
Nahman Avigad
Nahman Avigad (; September 25, 1905 – January 28, 1992), born in Zawalow, Galicia (then Austria-Hungary, now Zavaliv, Ukraine), was an Israeli archaeologist.
Biography
Avigad studied architecture in what is now the town of Brno, Czech Rep ...
.
References
See also
*
List of Israel Prize recipients
This is an incomplete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 - 2025.
List
For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize website ...
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Israel Prize in exact science recipients
Israel Prize in exact science recipients who were biochemists
Israeli biochemists
21st-century Israeli Jews
Scientists from Jerusalem
1930 births
Living people
Hebrew University Secondary School alumni
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