BIOLOGISTS from Lebanon

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Lebanese Biologists of all time. This list of famous Lebanese Biologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Ardem Patapoutian (1967 - )

With an HPI of 43.49, Ardem Patapoutian is the most famous Lebanese Biologist.  His biography has been translated into 41 different languages on wikipedia.

Ardem Patapoutian (born 1967) is a Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. He is known for his work in characterizing the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. In 2021, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius.

2. Huda Zoghbi (1954 - )

With an HPI of 34.76, Huda Zoghbi is the 2nd most famous Lebanese Biologist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Huda Yahya Zoghbi (Arabic: هدى الهبري الزغبي Hudā al-Hibrī az-Zughbī; born 1954), born Huda El-Hibri, is a Lebanese-born American geneticist, and a professor at the Departments of Molecular and Human Genetics, Neuroscience and Neurology at the Baylor College of Medicine. She is the director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute. She became the editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience as of 2018. Her work helped elucidate the genes and genetic mechanisms responsible for a number of devastating neurological disorders, such as Rett syndrome and spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. Zoghbi's discoveries have provided new ways of thinking about other neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, autism and intellectual disability, which could lead to new therapeutics and better, more efficient treatments. In 2017, she was awarded the Canada Gairdner International Award and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.