Nathan Nelson

Nathan Nelson is a biochemist and molecular biologist who was awarded the 2013 Israel Prize in Life Sciences. As of January 2012, he has published more than 240 scientific papers which were cited over 15,000 times.

Nathan Nelson was born in Avihayil, Israel in 1938. His father Moshe, who in 1918 immigrated to Israel as a soldier in the Jewish Legion, was a pioneer who co-founded Ramat Gan and the villages of Gan Haim and Avihayil. The family of Nathan's mother, Genia, was among the first settlers in Ramat Gan.

Nelson served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defense Forces from 1957 to 1959. Immediately after the Army, he became a kibbutz member in Gevim. When his father became sick, Nelson left Gevim to take care of their farm in Avihayil, raising cattle and sheep but mainly cultivating citrus trees.

In 1961, Nelson's former elementary and high school teacher, Professor Elazar Kochva, persuaded him to leave the farm to study at the then newly established Tel Aviv University. While studying at TAU, he married his classmate Hannah, who became instrumental in managing his laboratory. Together, they have three children, Lee-Bath Nelson (High Tech Executive and VC),Nirith Nelson (Curator and Art Director), and Ben Nelson (Founder of The Minerva Project).

Nathan Nelson acquired three degrees at TAU including a PhD under Professor J. Neuman's supervision.

Nelson did a post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Efraim Racker at Cornell from 1970 to 1972, after which he joined the newly opened Department of Biology at the Technion in Haifa. In 1980, he became a full professor.

During this period he spent a sabbatical year at University of Basel's Biozentrum with Professor Gottfried Schatz and at Cornell University with Professor Efraim Racker.

...
Wikipedia