Nobel Prize winner speaks with UB students

The University at Buffalo and Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute are co-sponsoring a visit on April 8 and April 9 from world-renowned scientist and recent Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Ada E. Yonath.
Yonath is the fourth woman ever to receive the chemistry's highest international honor.
SUNY Distinguished Professor Phillip Coppens has known Yonath since the 1970s when she was a student at the Weizmann Institute. He spoke about her before she sat down to the round table.
"Her work and her attitude are an inspiration for us all," Coppens said.
Yonath will deliver two talks while in Buffalo. On April 8 at 11 a.m. at HWI, she will discuss "The Stunning Ribosome Architecture and hints on its Origin." On April 9 at 4:15 p.m., she will discuss "Antibiotics Targeting the Ribosome" at UB as the Howard Tieckelmann Memorial Lecturer. The lecture will be held in 225 Natural Sciences Complex on North Campus.
Bill Duax, Hauptman Distinguished Scientist at HWI also knows Yonath professionally. He brought up a statement made by Yonath at a previous event.
"She said it is possible to be a first rate scientist and have a family," Duax said.
Yonath is visiting UB and HWI because of her close personal and professional relationship with crystallographers in Buffalo, who are themselves internationally renowned in the field of X-ray crystallography; which is a technique in which molecular structures are revealed by the diffraction patterns of X-rays as they "bounce" off of molecules.
"We are extremely fortunate to be able to host this visit from Dr. Yonath," Coppens said.
When she first began her research, only a few individual protein molecules had ever been determined. She pioneered ribosome crystallography in the late 1970s when a project like this was far beyond capabilities of the techniques available to them.
Yonath is currently the director of Kimmelman Center for Molecular Assemblies at the Weizmann Institute. She is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
"Ada is someone who can lead us to a more peaceful world," Duax said.

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