Prof. Ciechanover was born in Haifa in 1947. He studied medicine at Hebrew University and the Technion. Since 1979, he has served as a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine, and has been a full professor since 1992.

He has made a significant contribution to science in discovering the ubiquitin system and the biochemical basis for breakdown of cellular proteins. His groundbreaking research at the Technion, starting in 1984, led to the discovery of the roles and operating mechanism of the ubiquitin system. During five years of joint work with additional researchers, the principle was discovered that the ubiquitin protein is attached to proteins designated for degradation. Over the years, this time in independent studies, he discovered new degradation markers.

His scientific work has won him scholarships, awards and international acclaim. With his former teacher, Prof. Avram Hershko, he has won many prestigious awards, including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2000 and an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University. He has been a Fulbright Fellow, a Leukemia Society of America Fellow, an American Cancer Society Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Fellow and a member of the Council of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has won prizes from Innsbruck University of Austria, the Jewish National Fund Elkeles Award for Outstanding Medical Research, and the Mifal Hapayis Michael Landau Prize for a breakthrough in life sciences.

He has written 96 original scientific publications, 24 review articles and 21 books, and edited a book on the topic of the ubiquitin system and a special edition of a scientific journal on the topic of the ubiquitin system and the pathogenesis of cancer. In addition, he has been invited to speak at over 90 international conferences.