Awards & Winners

Wolf Prize in Agriculture

Wolf Prize

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", though the same description is also given to the World Food Prize.
Date Established : 1978

Check all the winners of Wolf Prize in Agriculture presented under Wolf Prize since 1978 .


Joachim Messing

(For innovations in recombinant DNA cloning that revolutionized agriculture and deciphering the genetic codes of crop plants.)

Jared Diamond

(For pioneering theories of crop domestication, the rise of agriculture and its influences on the development and demise of human societies, as well as its impact on the ecology of the environment.)

Harris A. Lewin

(For highly significant discoveries, that contribute to both fundamental and practical aspects of animal agriculture.)

R. James Cook

(For seminal discoveries in plant pathology and soil microbiology that impact crop productivity and disease management.)

David Baulcombe

(For his pioneering discovery of gene regulation by small inhibitory RNA molecules in plants is of profound importance, not only for agriculture, but also for biology as a whole, including the field of medicine.)

James H. Tumlinson, W. Joe Lewis, John A. Pickett

(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.)

Ronald 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.)

Yuan Longping, Steven D. Tanksley

(For innovative development of hybrid rice and discovery of the genetic basis of heterosis in this important food staple.)

R. Michael Roberts, Fuller W. Bazer

(For discoveries of Interferon-t 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.)

Roger N. Beachy, James E. Womack

(For the use of recombinant DNA technology, to revolutionize plant (Beachy) and animal (Womack) sciences, paving the way for applications to neighboring fields.)

Gurdev Khush

(For his extraordinary contribution to theoretical research in plant genetics, evolution and breeding especially of rice, with regard to food production and alleviation of hunger.)

Ilan Chet, Baldur R. Stefansson

(For the discovery of quantum topological and geometrical phases, specifically the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the Berry phase, and their incorporation into many fields of physics.)

Neal L. First

(For his pioneering research in the reproductive biology of livestock.)

Morris Schnitzer, Frank J. Stevenson

(For their pioneering contributions to our understanding of the chemistry of soil organic matter and its application to agriculture.)

Carl Barton Huffaker, Perry Adkisson

(For their contributions to the development and implementation of environmentally beneficial integrated pest management systems for the protection of agricultural crops.)

John E. Casida

(For 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.)

Shang Fa Yang

(For remarkable contributions to the understanding of the mechanism of biosynthesis, mode of action and applications of the plant hormone, Ethylene.)

Jozef Schell

(For his pioneering work in genetic transformation of plants, thereby opening up new horizons in basic plant science and breeding.)

Peter 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.)

Charles Thibault, Christopher Polge

(For pioneering work in reproductive physiology including cell preservation, fertilization processes, egg biology and embryo manipulations for domestic animal improvement.)

Theodor Otto Diener

(for his discovery and pioneering fundamental research on viroids and his applied work on viroid detection in crops.)

Ralph Riley, Ernest R. Sears

(for their fundamental research in cytogenetics of wheat, providing the basis for genetic improvement of cereal grains.)

Robert H. Burris

(for his pioneering fundamental research on the mechanisms of biological nitrogen fixation and its application in crop production.)

Don Kirkham, Cornelis Teunis de Wit

(for their innovative contributions to the quantitative understanding of soil-water and other environmental interactions influencing crop growth and yield.)

Wendell L. Roelofs

(for his fundamental chemical and biological research on pheromones and their practical use in insect control.)

John O. Almquist

(for his significant contributions to the application of artificial insemination to livestock improvement.)

Henry A. Lardy

(for his pioneering research on storage and preservation of spermatozoa thus enabling artificial insemination to become a universal practice.)

Glenn W. Salisbury

(for his outstanding achievements in basic and applied research on artificial insemination.)

Karl Maramorosch

(for his pioneering and wide-ranging studies on interactions between insects and disease agents in plants.)

Jay Laurence Lush

(for his outstanding and pioneering contributions to the application of genetics to livestock improvement;)

Sir Kenneth Blaxter

(for his fundamental contributions to the science and practice of ruminant nutrition and livestock production.)

George F. Sprague

(for his outstanding research on the genetic amelioration of maize for human welfare.)

John Charles Walker

(for his research in plant pathology, developing of disease-resistant varieties of major food plants.)