Ruth Arnon

Ruth Arnon is best known as the co-developer of the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone®. She has also made significant contributions to the fields of vaccine development, cancer research, and to the study of parasitic diseases. Since 2010, she is the first woman to serve as President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Arnon is also past president of the European Federation of Immunological Societies and the Association of Academies of Sciences in Asia, and she was Secretary-General of the International Union of Immunological Societies. At the Weizmann Institute, she has served as Vice President (1988-97), Head of the Department of Chemical Immunology (1984-89), Dean of the Faculty of Biology (1988-93), and Director of the MacArthur Center for Molecular Biology of Tropical Diseases (1985-94). Her awards include the Robert Koch Prize in Medical Sciences (Germany), Spain's Jiminez Diaz Memorial Prize, France's Legion of Honor, the Hadassah World Organization's Women of Distinction Award, the Wolf Prize for Medicine, the Rothschild Prize for Biology and the Israel Prize. Her recent gift to create the Arnon Campus at the Weizmann Institute promises to transform science education in Israel.