Flap over Wolf Prize Winners

Awards totalling $500,000 were distributed here last night to nine internationally prominent scientists who are this year’s winners of the Wolf Prize, established several years ago by an anonymous donor, which has become a source of sharp controversy in Israel.

President Ephraim Katzir absented himself from the festive awards ceremonies in the Knesset’s Chagall Hall to protest the fact that the $10 million-fund administered by the Wolf Foundation is not ear-marked for the encouragement of Israeli scientists. There were no Israelis among the winners last night. Katzir appears to express the feelings of many Israelis that the Wolf Foundation duplicates the work of the Nobel Prize Committee.

The Wolf Prize is often described as Israel’s “Nobel Prize” and, as such, has been the object of both praise and criticism. It is administered under the conditions laid down by the donor, who insisted on anonymity. The prize was given official State recognition when the Knesset approved it by a narrow margin in July, 1975 at the urging of the late Pinhas Sapir.

The awards ceremonies were to have been held at the President’s residence and Katzir was to have presented the prizes. In view of his objections, the ceremonies were moved to the Knesset building and Knesset Speaker Yitzhak Shamir made the presentations. Premier Menachem Begin was present, along with members of his Cabinet and the Knesset, the diplomatic corps and relatives of the winners. The winners received cash awards of $100,000 which were shared in fields in which there was more than one award.

THE WINNERS

They are, in the field of agriculture: Prof. George F. Sprague of the University of Illinois, for linking theoretical quantitative genetic theory with practical plant breeding, resulting in modification of the protein quality of maize; Prof. Emeritus John C. Walker, of the University of Wisconsin, for contributions to the control of plant disease and his book “Plant Pathology,” the standard text on the subject.

In mathematics: Prof. Israel M. Gelfand of Moscow State University, for his work on functional analysis and mathematical group representation. Gelfand, a three-time winner of the Order of Lenin and the Lenin Prize, did not attend the ceremonies; Prof. Emeritus Carl L. Siegel, of the University of Gottingen, for his contributions to the theory of numbers and complex variables. Siegel was represented at the ceremonies by the former German Ambassador to Israel, Per Fischer.

In chemistry: Prof. Carl Djessari, of Stanford University, for synthesizing the first oral contraceptive. His parents live in Israel. In physics; Prof. Chien-Shiung Wu. of Columbia University, for her work in fundamental physics in which she demonstrated the correlation between the direction of the beta ray emission with the direction of nuclear spin, a relationship vital to the study of theoretical physics.

In medicine: Dr. George D. Snell, of the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, for discovery of the H-2 antigen in mice, a breakthrough in the field of immunology; Dr. Jean Dausset, of St. Louis Hospital, Paris and Dr. J.J. van Rood, of the University of Leiden, for their research into genetic factors affecting human acceptance or rejection of organ transplants and the possible role of those factors in the control or prevention of certain diseases.