News Release

Hebrew University young researcher award goes to Dr. Nayef Jarrous

Grant and Award Announcement

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dr. Nayef Jarrous, a young researcher from Shfaram in the north of Israel, is the recipient of the Yoram Ben-Porath Prize as this year's outstanding young researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Ben-Porath Prize is awarded annually by the president of the Hebrew University to honor the memory of the former rector and president of the university, who was killed along with his wife and young son in a car crash near Eilat in 1992.

Dr. Jarrous, who teaches in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, has conducted groundbreaking research in achieving greater understanding of the early processing of small RNA molecules involved in the complex system whereby genetic information in DNA is converted into protein through RNA. He was a corresponding author of an article on this subject in the October 2003 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

Dr. Jarrous, 39, was born in Shfaram into a Christian Arab family whose parents were both teachers. He attended public schools in his home town and earned three degrees in science at the Hebrew University, followed by postdoctoral training at Yale University. He has been a lecturer in the Department of Molecular Biology since 2000.

In 1989 he earned the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine prize for a distinguished M.Sc. thesis. He is a recipient of the Kahanoff Foundation fellowship and has won research grants from, among others, the Israel Science Foundation, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and the Abisch-Frenkel Foundation of Switzerland.

Dr. Jarrous is married to Dr. Ghada Jarrous, also a molecular biologist, who earned her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University, and they are the parents of one child. The family lives in Jerusalem.

###

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.