Placido Domingo joins ranks of Wolf Prize winners

Renowned tenor and conductor Placido Domingo received the 2012 Wolf Prize for the Arts this week, joining the ranks of a long line of accomplished artists and musicians.

The prize will have to fight for space on his mantle alongside his nine Grammy awards, three Latin Grammies, US Presidential Medal of Freedom, key to the Venezuelan city of Caracas, Medal of Honor from Oman, and nine honorary doctorates, as well as dozens of additional accolades . The Spanish tenor also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of TENOR PLACIDO DOMINGO is one of the winners of this year’s Wolf Prize for the Arts. Fame and a Sesame Street character, Placido Flamingo, named after him.

Every year since 1978, the Wolf Foundation in Israel hands out prizes in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts.

So far, 253 scientists and artists from 23 countries have won the award, which the president hands out. This year, the ceremony will take place on May 13th in a ceremony at the Knesset.

Besides Israel, the seven winners of this year’s Wolf Prize come from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The winners are Jacob Bekenstein of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the physics category; California Institute of Technology Prof. Michael Aschbacher and University of Texas at Austin’s Prof. Luis A. Caffarelli in the math category; Prof. Ronald M. Evans of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, in medicine; University of California at Berkeley’s Prof. A. Paul Alivisatos and Harvard University’s Prof. Charles Leiber in chemistry; and Berlin Philharmonic conductor Sir Simon Rattle, who joins Domingo in the music section.

When announcing the winners on Monday, Likud MK and Wolf Foundation Council chairman Gideon Sa’ar said they were joining “the respected list of the best scientists and artists who have won this award.” He said the award pointed to “Israel’s place as a leader in science and advanced research.”

He also highlighted plans to invest more funds in developing the country’s status as a center of global research.