The winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Prof. Richard Axel will receive an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University, for his revolutionary discoveries in the study of the human sense of smell.
The winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, Prof. Richard Axel, will receive an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University, this coming June. The degree was awarded as part of the university's jubilee events, during which honorary doctorates will be awarded to leading scientists, intellectuals and the public in Israeli society.
In the reasons for the award committee, it is stated, among other things, that the award is given to Prof. Richard Axel "for his discoveries in understanding the human sense of smell, the structure of the molecular, cellular and neural mechanisms that enable our minds to decipher the fragrances of the universe, and for his great contribution to improving the quality of life of mankind".
The 59-year-old Prof. Axel, a graduate of Columbia and John Hopkins universities in the USA, is currently a lecturer at Columbia University.
Back in 1991, Prof. Axel discovered an extended family of genes that are responsible for the activation of the smell receptors that are inside our nose. The scientific breakthrough attributed to him was a detailed presentation of the process of smelling in a kind of "topographical map" that makes it possible to precisely follow the path of individual nerve cells from the receptors in the nose to the smelling centers in the brains of animals.
The degree will be awarded in a festive ceremony on June 7.6.05, XNUMX at Bar-Ilan University
