The Wolf Foundation on Tuesday announced the laureates of the 2017 Wolf Prize, also known as the “Israeli Nobel Prize,” for achievements in the arts and sciences.
The five awards, in chemistry, mathematics, physics, medicine and arts, totaling $100,000 in each field, will be divided this year between eight winners from three countries, the US, UK and Switzerland, the foundation said.
The prizes will be awarded to the winners in June by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at an official ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem. Twenty-six percent of previous Wolf laureates have gone on to win Nobel Prizes later, in parallel fields.
The Wolf Prize for Medicine will be awarded to Prof. Jim Allison from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, for “sparking a revolution in cancer therapy” through his discovery of an immune checkpoint blockade. Allison’s “brilliant insight that blocking the function of inhibitory receptors on T lymphocytes could result in activation of anti-tumor immunity forever transformed the field of immunotherapy,” the Wolf foundation said in a statement.
