Ada Yonath is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her work on the structure of the ribosome.

In 2009 she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome.

She became the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Ada Yonath was born on June 22nd 1939, in the Geula quarter of Jerusalem. When her father died at the age of 42, she moved with her family to Tel Aviv. She went to Tichon Hadash high school, although her mother couldn't pay the tuition.

She returned to Jerusalem for college and graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a BA in Chemistry in 1962 and an MA in biochemistry in 1964. In 1968, she earned a Ph.D. in crystallography at the Weizmann Institute of Science .

She has one daughter, Hagit Yonath, who is a doctor at Sheba Medical Center, and a granddaughter, Noa.

She is known for believing all Hamas prisoners should be released. She said that “holding Palestinians captive encourages and perpetuates their motivition to harm Israel and its citizens. Once we don’t have any prisoners to release they will have no reason to kidnap soldiers."

In conclusion, it is a big honor that an Israeli woman won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and it is a huge pride to Israel as a country.

Hopefully more Israelis will win the Nobel Prize in the future.