Biography
Avram Hershko ( Hebrew : אברהם הרשקו , romanized : Avraham Hershko , Hungarian : Herskó Ferenc Ábrahám ; [ 1 ] born December 31, 1937) is a Hungarian-born Israeli biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. He was born Herskó Ferenc in Karcag , Hungary , into a Jewish family, [ 2 ] the son of Shoshana/Margit 'Manci' (née Wulc) and Moshe Hershko, both teachers. [ 3 ] During the Second World War , his father was forced into labor service in the Hungarian army and then taken as a prisoner by the Soviet Army . For years, Avram's family didn't know anything about what had happened to his father. Avram, his mother and older brother Chaim/Laszlo 'Laci' were put in a ghetto in Szolnok . During the final days of the ghetto, most Jews were sent to be murdered in Auschwitz , but Avram and his family managed to board trains that took them to a concentration camp in Austria , where they were forced into labor until the end of the war. Avram and his mother and brother survived the war and returned to their home. His father returned as well, 4 years after they had last seen him. [ 4 ] Hershko and his family emigrated to Israel in 1950 and settled in Jerusalem . He received his MD in 1965 and his PhD in 1969 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Hadassah Medical Center . He was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco . He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion in Haifa and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine . Fields: Chemistry
About the Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."
Quick Facts
- Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
- Added: 2026-02-07
- Source: Wikipedia
- Established: 1946
- Presented by: Lasker Foundation