During a special ceremony held Thursday evening in the Knesset's Chagall Hall in the presence of President Reuven Rivlin, former prime minister Ehud Barak, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Meir Cohen (Blue and White), Prof. Dan Shechtman, acting chairman of the Wolf Foundation Board and a former Wolf Prize Laureate, and other dignitaries, the prestigious Wolf Prize for 2019 was presented to the following renowned scientists, and architect, for their “achievements for humanity and for friendly relations between peoples, regardless of nationality, race, color, religion, gender or political outlook."

During the ceremony, President Rivlin said, "We have gathered to honor seven 'dedicated visionaries' whose courage and determination to make further discoveries in the world have brought us, human society, good tidings. These individuals who dared and persuaded us to follow in their footsteps, are masters in their fields, and all of whom are bringing us a step closer towards the better, the healthier, the more beautiful and the whole. Thanks to you, we can help patients to lead a healthy lifestyle, to better understand the world we live in, to shape it for our needs and at the same time to preserve it for the benefit of future generations."

Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Cohen said: “Unfortunately, in the reality in which we live, the difference between light and darkness is not always clear. In a world of furious social networks and quick messaging, the advantage of wisdom over folly is not always clear. The distinction between real and fake information is being blurred. This blurring is one of the most serious dangers to our societies, in Israel and the entire world. We have to insist that there is the truth and there is the lie, and a huge gap exists between them. We must acknowledge that there is wisdom and there is imbecility - and the difference between them is enormous. How enormous? 'Like the advantage of light over darkness', no less. I thank you, the winners of the Wolf Prize for helping us all in this important struggle. Continue to shine on the world with your wisdom."

The prize in Medicine was awarded to Prof. Jeffrey Friedman from Rockefeller University in New York, for the identification of Leptin, the hormone responsible for regulating bodyweight and obesity.

The prize in Chemistry was awarded to Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald from MIT and to Prof. John F. Hartwig from University of California at Berkeley, for the development of efficient transition-metal catalysts that have revolutionized drug manufacturing, leading to breakthrough in molecule and synthetics design.

The prize in Mathematics was awarded to Prof. Gregory Lawler from Chicago University, for his comprehensive and pioneering research on erased loops and random walks, and to Prof. Jean Francois le Gall from Paris Sud Orsay University, for his profound and elegant works on stochastic processes. “The work undertaken by these two mathematicians on random processes and probability, which have been recognized by multiple prizes, became the stepping stone for many consequent breakthroughs," according to the Wolf Foundation's website.

The prize in Agriculture was awarded to economist David Zilberman from the University of California at Berkeley, for developing economic models that address fundamental issues in agriculture, economics and policymaking. Zilberman, who was born in Jerusalem, has built his career around the economics of agriculture, environment, technology and the risks they involve. He seeks to leverage economic theories to solve global problems in developed and developing nations alike.

The prize in Art was awarded to Israeli architect Moshe Safdie, who came into the limelight as a young architect with his trailblazing Habitat 67 Project in Montreal. Since the beginning of his career in the 1970s, Safdie left a unique mark with works across the globe. Some of his most notable projects in Israel include the Yad VaShem Museum, Terminal 3 at Ben-Gurion International Airport, the city of Modi'in, the Yitzchak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, the Mamilla Compound and the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, and more.

The Wolf Prize, which has been awarded in Israel by the Wolf Foundation since 1978, is an international honor regarded as being second to the Nobel Prize, and in some categories even equal to the Nobel Prize.

Five or six prizes have been awarded annually in the sciences. In the arts, the prize rotates annually among architecture, music, painting and sculpture.

The prize in each field consists of a certificate and a monetary award of $100,000. In the event of two or three recipients sharing the prize, the honorarium is divided equally.

International prize committees in each field, comprising renowned experts, select the Wolf Prize winners.

The Wolf Foundation began its activities in 1976, with an initial endowment fund donated by the Wolf family. The Foundation's founders and major donors were Dr. Ricardo Subirana y Lobo Wolf, a German-born inventor who served as Cuba's ambassador to Israel, and his wife Francisca.