Sharon Gabay · CC BY-SA 3.0

A Hungarian-born Israeli biochemist who helped identify how cells destroy the proteins they no longer need — a tagging system, using a small protein called ubiquitin, that marks unwanted proteins for breakdown. Understanding that disposal mechanism reshaped research into cancer and other diseases where faulty protein regulation plays a role. Hershko shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the work, done largely at the Technion in Haifa.