Professor Ada Yonath exemplifies the characteristics embraced in her Jewish culture: innate curiosity, thirst for knowledge and a respect for science.  In 2009, the Israeli scientist received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structure and function of ribosome, making her the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

When asked on stage why she chose to study ribosomes, a cell structure which translates genetic codes into proteins, Prof Yonath's answer was simple. "Ribosomes are fascinating particles and I was curious about how they work," she said.

It led to a complicated and long drawn research journey spanning decades. Fighting ridicule and many challenges, she was determined to shed light on a topic she was passionate about and contribute to human knowledge.

Doing the undoable

"When I started on my quest to uncover the 3D structure of the ribosome, many experts said it was not doable. The textbooks said it was not possible and I had my doubts too. But I decided to give it a try. Even if I did not get there, everything we did along the way might be of value to human knowledge," shared Prof Yonath.

She began her studies in collaboration with Professor H.G. Wittmann of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and in parallel, at her small laboratory at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Resources were limited and Prof Yonath had to use a small make-shift office transformed from a disused toilet but she was contented.

"The textbooks said it was not possible and I had my doubts too. But I decided to give it a try. Even if I did not get there, everything we did along the way might be of value to human knowledge."

For a long time, she was received with skepticism and was called "the dreamer". These did not unnerve her as she had more pressing tasks to tackle in her challenging project. She knew the destination she was aiming for, but had no idea how to get there.

Prof Yonath and her team had to invent the methodologies to help them study the structure of the ribosomes. They spent six years creating stable crystals out of ribosomes to be used in x-ray crystallography. To their dismay, each crystal decayed after just one radiation which only yielded very limited data. A huge number of crystals would be needed to obtain sufficient data for study and this was impractical.

"I didn't give up then. Instead, I thought long and hard about solving the problem. It was like climbing Mount Everest. We thought we had reached the summit after six years, only to discover a higher summit beyond us. So we descended from where we were and started climbing another one," she said, referring to the multiple dead ends she encountered along the way.

Not frustration, but challenges

To her, science is not just about reaching the destination, but surmounting obstacles and difficulties along the way.

"I don't call it a frustration," she said. "I call it a challenge. A smooth sailing research journey is boring. Challenges in science push you forward to create new ideas, thinking and methods."

Prof Yonath candidly shared that she was fired twice in her career, once when she was a young scientist and did not have sufficient research results to show from her laboratory. Consequently, she failed to be promoted to professorship and was not allowed to stay on in her job. It was only through her superior's intervention that she returned in an administrative position to continue her research.

When she finally made some headway towards uncovering the structure of the ribosome, for example, by validating suggestions made by earlier scientists that ribosomes consist of an internal void, the scientific community was not convinced. Despite the presence of evidence, it took many years before her findings were accepted.

Science is her hobby

What kept Prof Yonath going was her love for science. To her, science is not a career but a hobby.

"If the project is exciting and worthwhile, press on even if you encountered problems," she urged younger scientists in the audience. "There were dead ends, but we also reached many intermediate milestones, which were moments when things got really exciting."

"A smooth sailing research journey is boring."

It was only in 2000 and 2001, some twenty years after she started on her research, that Prof Yonath and her team published the first complete 3D structures of the ribosome. This has since led to a better understanding of the functions of antibiotics, among other applications.

In 2009, Prof Yonath, together with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for studies of the structure and functions of the ribosome, a recognition of her contribution to science and knowledge.

Many of the methodology developed by Prof Yonath and her team has since become obsolete and replaced by better means. Was she upset about it?

"No, I'm happy. The process is now easier," she said. "I'm always optimistic!"