Baruj Benacerraf

Baruj Benacerraf (October 29, 1920 – August 2, 2011) was a Venezuelan-born American immunologist.

Benacerraf won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1979 for his "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self". He shared the prize with Jean Dausset and George Davis Snell. 

Life
He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was born to Sephardic Jewish parents from Morocco and Algiers. Benacerraf's brother is Paul Benacerraf, a well-known philosopher. His father was a textile merchant. In 1925, he moved from Venezuela to Paris. In 1940, after he went back to Venezuela, he emigrated to the U.S.. He earned his B.S. at Columbia University School of General Studies in 1942. Benacerraf later went to the Medical College of Virginia where he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree.

References

Category:1920 births
Category:2011 deaths
Category:American Nobel Prize winners
Category:American physicians
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Jewish American academics
Category:Jewish American scientists
Category:Jewish Nobel Prize winners
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:People from Caracas
Category:Scientists from Paris
Category:South American Jews
Category:Venezuelan scientists
Category:Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winners