ACADEMIA

David Julius

Physiologist

A professor of physiology at the University of California in San Francisco, David Julius was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2021 for his pioneering research on the molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat. The product of a Russian Jewish family, Julius grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, a neighborhood he described in a recent interview as a “landing pad for Eastern European immigrants like my grandparents, who fled Czarist Russia and antisemitism in pursuit of a better life.” Julius has been responsible for several scientific breakthroughs during his career, including the identification of capsaicin, the chemical that puts the heat in chili peppers. (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)