File:Professor_Richard_Axel_ForMemRS.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Richard Axel
Sign in to saveAmerican molecular biologist
OverviewAI-generated
Richard Axel is an American-Swedish biochemist, neurologist, university teacher, and physician. Born in Brooklyn in 1946, he was educated at Stuyvesant High School, Columbia University, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has worked at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Columbia University, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His professional interests include biochemistry, neurobiology, neurology, and physiology.
Axel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Rosenstiel Award, and the Alan T. Waterman Award. He is a member of the Royal Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is married to Cornelia Bargmann and speaks English.
His notable works include *Eucaryotic gene regulation* and *Harvey Lectures*. He is recognized in the Royal Society collection, the Nobel Laureates collection, the Nobel Medicine collection, and the American Academy Arts Sciences collection.
Synthesized by Vinony from 27 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Nobel Prize, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 2
via Open Library + Wikidata
Nobel Prize
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine2004
“for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system”
Shared · 1/2 portion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Richard
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Sweden
- Place of birth
- Brooklyn
- Spouse
- Cornelia Bargmann
- Occupation
- university teacher
- Educated at
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
- Employer
- Columbia University
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- physiology
- Image
- Professor Richard Axel ForMemRS (cropped).jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Richard Axel
- date of birth
- 1946-07-02
- member of
- American Philosophical Society
- Erdős number
- 3
- name in native language
- Richard Axel
- writing language
- English language
- interested in
- biochemistry
Sources (6)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won him and Linda Buck, a former postdoctoral research scientist in his group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004.
In February 2026, Axel resigned as co-director of Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, calling his past association with Jeffrey Epstein "a serious error in judgment" and apologizing for compromising trust. He also stepped down from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Richard Axel” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.