Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1999
Field of Research: Medical Sciences
Date: 11 November 1999
Place of Ceremony: Main Building
Host Institution: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Host Country: Trondheim, Norway
Trondheim, Norway, November 1999. The World Cultural Council presented the 1999 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to Dr. Robert Weinberg. Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Cambridge, USA. The Official Award Ceremony Took place at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, which acted as host for 1999.
This recognition made by members of the Interdisciplinary committee of the World Cultural Council to Dr. Weinberg is due to his valuable and pioneering contributions in the field of Biomedical Sciences and for his productive trajectory related to the genetic and molecular basis of neoplastic disease.
Dr. Weinberg’s major research consists in the discovery of the first human cancer-causing gene, the ras oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, the retinoblastoma gene. The main goal of his research program is to determine how oncogenes, their normal counterparts (proto-oncogenes), and tumor suppressors genes fit together in their complex circuity that controls cell growth.
Dr. Robert Weinberg was born in Pittsburgh, PA, USA in 1942. He attend to the Massachusetts Institute of technology MIT in 1960, he received his B.S (1964) and Ph.D. (1969) in Biology. He did postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute, Israel and the Salk Institute, Israel and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
He has received many awards and honours, among them the National Academy of Sciences/US Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology, The Sloan Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Harvey Prize from the American Society for Technion Israel Institute of Technology and the 1997 National Medal of Science.
