Wolf Prize in Agriculture


The Wolf Prize in Agriculture is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics and the Arts. The Prize is sometimes considered the equivalent of a "Nobel Prize in Agriculture".

Laureateshttp://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&name=&prize=3016&year=&field=3000 Wolf Prize Recipients in Agriculture

YearNameNationalityCitation
1978George F. Spraguefor his outstanding research on the genetic amelioration of maize for human welfare.
1978John Charles Walkerfor his research in plant pathology, developing of disease-resistant varieties of major food plants.
1979Jay L. Lushfor his outstanding and pioneering contributions to the application of genetics to livestock improvement;
1979Kenneth Blaxterfor his fundamental contributions to the science and practice of ruminant nutrition and livestock production.
1980Karl Maramoroschfor his pioneering and wide-ranging studies on interactions between insects and disease agents in plants.
1981John O. Almquistfor his significant contributions to the application of artificial insemination to livestock improvement.
1981Henry A. Lardyfor his pioneering research on storage and preservation of spermatozoa thus enabling artificial insemination to become a universal practice.
1981Glenn W. Salisburyfor his outstanding achievements in basic and applied research on artificial insemination.
1982Wendell L. Roelofsfor his fundamental chemical and biological research on pheromones and their practical use in insect control.
1983/4Don Kirkham
Cornelis T. de Wit

for their innovative contributions to the quantitative understanding of soil-water and other environmental interactions influencing crop growth and yield.
1984/5Robert H. Burrisfor his pioneering fundamental research on the mechanisms of biological nitrogen fixation and its application in crop production.
1986Ralph Riley
Ernest R. Sears

for their fundamental research in cytogenetics of wheat, providing the basis for genetic improvement of cereal grains.
1987Theodor O. Dienerfor his discovery and pioneering fundamental research on viroids and his applied work on viroid detection in crops.
1988Charles Thibault
Ernest John Christopher Polge
;
for pioneering work in reproductive physiology including cell preservation, fertilization processes, egg biology and embryo manipulations for domestic animal improvement.
1989Peter M. Biggs
Michael Elliott

for distinguished contributions to basic science and its successful translation into practice in the fields of animal health and crop protection.
1990Jozef Stefaan Schellfor his pioneering work in genetic transformation of plants, thereby opening up new horizons in basic plant science and breeding.
1991Shang Fa Yang / for his remarkable contributions to the understanding of the mechanism of biosynthesis, mode of action and applications of the plant hormone, Ethylene.
1992No award
1993John E. Casidafor his pioneering studies on the mode of action of insecticides, design of safer pesticides and contributions to the understanding of nerve and muscle function in insects.
1994/5Carl B. Huffaker
Perry Adkisson

for their contributions to the development and implementation of environmentally beneficial integrated pest management systems for the protection of agricultural crops.
1995/6Morris Schnitzer
Frank J. Stevenson

for their pioneering contributions to our understanding of the chemistry of soil organic matter and its application to agriculture.
1996/7Neal L. Firstfor his pioneering research in the reproductive biology of livestock.
1998Ilan Chet
Baldur R. Stefansson

for their contributions to the environmentally safe development of world agriculture through innovative approaches in breeding and bio-control.
1999No award
2000Gurdev Khushfor his extraordinary contribution to theoretical research in plant genetics, evolution and breeding especially of rice, with regard to food production and alleviation of hunger.
2001Roger N. Beachy
James E. Womack

for the use of recombinant DNA technology, to revolutionize plant and animal sciences, paving the way for applications to neighboring fields.
2002/3R. Michael Roberts
Fuller W. Bazer
/ ;
for discoveries of Interferon tau and other pregnancy-associated proteins, which clarified the biological mystery of signaling between embryo and mother to maintain pregnancy, with profound effects on the efficiency of animal production systems, as well as human health and well-being.
2004Yuan Longping
Steven D. Tanksley

for innovative development of hybrid rice and discovery of the genetic basis of heterosis in this important food staple.
2005No award
2006/7Ronald L. Phillips
Michel A. J. Georges

for groundbreaking discoveries in genetics and genomics, laying the foundations for improvements in crop and livestock breeding, and sparking important advances in plant and animal sciences.
2008John A. Pickett
James H. Tumlinson
W. Joe Lewis


for their remarkable discoveries of mechanisms governing plant-insect and plant-plant interactions. Their scientific contributions on chemical ecology have fostered the development of integrated pest management and significantly advanced agricultural sustainability.
2009No award
2010David Baulcombefor his pioneering discovery of gene regulation by small inhibitory RNA molecules in plants, which is of profound importance not only for agriculture, but also for biology as a whole, including the field of medicine.
2011Harris A. Lewinfor highly significant discoveries, that contribute to both fundamental and practical aspects of animal agriculture.
2011R. James Cookfor seminal discoveries in plant pathology and soil microbiology that impact crop productivity and disease management.
2012No award
2013Joachim Messing / for innovations in recombinant DNA cloning, which revolutionized agriculture, and for deciphering the genetic codes of crop plants.
2013Jared Diamondfor pioneering theories of crop domestication, the rise of agriculture and its influences on the development and demise of human societies, and its impact on the ecology of the environment.
2014Jorge Dubcovsky
Leif Andersson

for their break-through contribution to the study of plants and animals, through the use of cutting-edge genomic technologies.
2015Linda J. Saiffor her discoveries of novel enteric and respiratory viruses of food animals and humans which have led to her extensive contributions of fundamental knowledge of the gut-mammary immunologic axis and have provided new ways to design vaccines and vaccination strategies.
2016Trudy Mackayfor her work in quantitative genetics, which studies the interaction between genes, traits and environmental effects.
2017No award
2018Gene E. Robinsonfor leading the genomics revolution in the organismal and population biology of the honeybee.
2019David Zilbermanfor incorporating biophysical features of agroeconomic systems to develop economic models and econometric decision-making frameworks to answer fundamental agricultural economic and policy questions in several important areas.
2020Caroline Deanfor pioneering discoveries in flowering time control and epigenetic basis of vernalization.