Wolf Prize facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Wolf Prize
Presented by	Wolf Foundation
Country	Israel
Reward	US $100,000
First awarded	1978; 47 years ago (1978)

The Wolf Prize is a special international award given out in Israel. It has been presented almost every year since 1978. This prize honors living scientists and artists for their amazing "achievements that help mankind and build friendly relationships among people." It doesn't matter what country someone is from, their race, color, religion, gender, or political views – anyone can be considered for this award.

What is the Wolf Prize?

The Wolf Prize is given in Israel by the Wolf Foundation. This foundation was started by Ricardo Wolf. He was an inventor born in Germany and used to be Cuba's ambassador to Israel.

Fields of Achievement

The prize is awarded in six different areas. These include Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics. There is also an Arts prize. This arts prize changes each year between architecture, music, painting, and sculpture.

The Award and Its Importance

Each Wolf Prize winner receives a special diploma and US$100,000. The awards ceremony usually happens at a meeting in the Knesset, which is Israel's parliament.

The Wolf Prizes in physics and chemistry are often seen as very important. Many people consider them the most prestigious awards in these fields after the Nobel Prize. The physics prize is especially known for picking future Nobel Prize winners. For example, between 1978 and 2010, fourteen Wolf Prize winners later won the Nobel Prize. Five of them won the Nobel Prize just one year later!

In medicine, the Wolf Prize is also highly respected. It is probably the third most important award, after the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award. Before the Abel Prize was created, the Wolf Prize was like a "Nobel Prize in Mathematics." This is because the Fields Medal, another famous math award, is only given every four years to mathematicians under forty. The agriculture prize is also often called the "Nobel Prize in Agriculture."

Reuven Rivlin and Dan Schetman, hosting the Wolf Prize in 2018. In the background is an Israeli artwork made of crushed basalt.

Recent Wolf Prize Winners

The most recent Wolf Prize winners were announced in 2025. Here are the amazing people who received the awards:

• Agriculture—Jonathan Jones, Jeffery Dangl, and Brian Staskawicz. They were honored for their important discoveries about how plants fight off diseases.
• Chemistry—Helmut Schwarz. He was recognized for his work in understanding how certain chemicals react. This helps solve big problems in how chemicals are made.
• Mathematics—No award was given in this field for 2025.
• Medicine—Pamela J. Bjorkman. She was awarded for finding new ways to help the body fight off viruses. Her methods use special approaches focused on antibodies.
• Physics—James P. Eisenstein, Jainendra K. Jain, and Mordehai Heiblum. They received the prize for helping us understand the surprising behaviors of tiny electron systems. These systems are found in strong magnetic fields.
• Architecture—Tiantian Xu. Her architecture transformed villages across China. Her work helped these villages grow economically, socially, and culturally.

Laureates per country

Below is a chart showing how many Wolf Prize winners have come from each country. This list includes winners up to 2023. If someone has citizenship in more than one country, they are counted for each country.

Country	Number of laureates
United States	190
United Kingdom	41
Israel	25
France	23
Hungary	16
Japan	15
Canada	15
Soviet Union /  Russia	14
Germany	13
Italy	11
Austria	10
Belgium	8
Sweden	7
Switzerland	6
Spain	5
Netherlands	5
Argentina	4
Taiwan	4
Poland	3
India	2
Portugal	2
Denmark	2
China	1
Brazil	1
Mexico	1
Egypt	1
South Africa	1
Rhodesia	1
Jordan	1
Norway	1
Finland	1
Uruguay	1
Georgia	1
Cyprus	1

See also

In Spanish: Premio Wolf para niños

• Lists of art awards
• List of general science and technology awards
• List of mathematics awards