Subject Guide: Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates

Some of the laureates featured in our collections:

Konrad Emil Bloch

• The 1964 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly awarded jointly to Bloch and Feodor Lynen "for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism."
• Archive highlights:
  • Konrad Bloch collection, 1964-1965 (AR 2455) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
  • Konrad Bloch Clippings Collection 1964-2000 (AR 2455 C)

Paul Ehrlich

• The 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Ehrlich and Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov "in recognition of their work on immunity."
• Archive highlights:
  • Paul Ehrlich Collection (AR 339) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
  • Paul Ehrlich Clippings Collection 1963-1996 (AR 339 C)
  • Marianne Landau Collection (AR 11066 / MF 885) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
    • Marianne Landau was the daughter of Paul Ehrlich; this collection contains some of her work in promoting her father's legacy as well as personal papers. 
• Library highlights:
  • Paul Ehrlich : scientist for life / by Ernst Bäumler ; translated from the German by Grant Edwards. Holmes & Meier, 1984.
  • Paul Ehrlich : pathfinder in cell biology ; chronicle of his life and accomplishments in immunology, cancer research and chemotherapy / by Frederick H. Kasten. Williams & Wilkins, 1996.
  • Paul Ehrlich : his ideas and his legacy / by Bernhard Witkop. Nobel symposium, 1981. 

Bernard Katz

• The 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation."
• Archive highlights:
  • Sir Bernard Katz Collection, 1970-2001 (AR 4250) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
  • Frederick Rose Collection, 1999-2001 (AR 11046) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
    • Collection contains letters from Rose discussing his schooling at the König-Albert-Gymnasium, including his classmate Bernard Katz. 

Rita Levi-Montalcini

• The 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Levi-Montalcini and to Stanley Cohen "for their discoveries of growth factors."
• Library highlights:
  • In praise of imperfection : my life and work / Rita Levi-Maontalcini ; translated from the Italian by Luigi Attardi. Basic Books, 1988. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation series.

Otto Fritz Meyerhof

• The 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was divided equally between Meyerhof "for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle" and Archibald Vivian Hill "for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle." 
• Archive highlights:
  • Otto Meyerhof Collection (AR 1449) [Collection has been digitized and is available online.]
• Library highlights:
  • Antisemitismus in der Akademie : Otto Meyerhof - ein Forscherleben zwischen Ruhm und Vertreibung / edited by Michael Schmitt. Hentrich & Hentrich, 2022
  • Sittliche und religioese Weltansicht / by Leonard Nelson. Berlin Verlag "Oeffentliches Leben" 1933. 
    • Contains Meyerhof's essay "Betrachtungen ueber die naturphilosophischen Grundlagen der Physiologie." 

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

• The 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was divided, one half to Rosalyn Yalow "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones" and the other half jointly to Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain."
• Library highlights:
  • Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel laureate : her life and work in medicine : a biographical memoir / by Eugene Straus. Plenum Trade, 1998.

Selman Waksman

• The 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Waksman "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis."
• Archive highlights:
  • Selman A. Waksman papers (P-97)
• Library highlights:
  • My life with the microbes / by Selman A. Waksman. Simon and Schuster, 1954.
  • Scientific contributions of Selman A. Waksman : selected articles published in honor of his 80th birthday, July 22, 1968. / edited by H. Boyd Woodruff. Rutgers University Press, 1968.