Wolf Foundation names eight 2026 Wolf Prize laureates, including two Israeli mathematicians

Right · 2The Wolf Foundation announced the eight 2026 Wolf Prize laureates in medicine, physics, chemistry and mathematics at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Thursday. 1 2 Right · 2President Isaac Herzog and Prof. Osnat Luxenburg, acting chair of the Wolf Foundation Council, were present for the announcement. 1 2 Right · 2The mathematics prize goes jointly to Prof. David Kazhdan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Joseph Bernstein of Tel Aviv University, for foundational work on representation theory, automorphic forms and algebraic geometry and their role in creating geometric representation theory. 1 2

Right · 1JNS adds that the foundation says their tools have become central to modern mathematical research, including group theory and the Langlands program. 1 Right · 2The medicine prize goes to Prof. Charles S. Zuker of Columbia University, described by JNS as Chilean-born, for research on how taste works; JNS says his work identified cells and receptors that detect the five basic tastes and how that information is represented in the brain. 1 2 Right · 2The physics prize is shared by German physicist Prof. Immanuel Bloch and Chinese-born physicist Prof. Jun Ye, cited for advances in controlling ultracold atomic systems; Bloch helped establish ultracold atoms as a platform for simulating complex quantum systems, and Ye led development of highly accurate atomic clocks. 1 2

Right · 1According to JNS, the chemistry prize goes jointly to Prof. Shankar Balasubramanian and Prof. David Klenerman of the University of Cambridge and French scientist Prof. Pascal Mayer, for low-cost, large-scale DNA sequencing methods used in genomic medicine. 1 Right · 1The laureates are due to receive their awards at a Knesset ceremony in Jerusalem in June 2027; the prize, established in 1978, is presented annually by the president of Israel, and JNS notes that many recipients have later won Nobel Prizes. 1