Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig (20 June 1928 – 1 April 2018[1]) was an Austrian-Brazilian immunologist specializing in the development of malaria vaccines.
[2] Dr. Nussenzweig was born Ruth Sonntag in Vienna, Austria, to a secular Jewish family in which both of her parents were physicians.
While attending the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, she became involved in leftist politics and met Victor Nussenzweig, her future husband and lifelong research partner.
Through the intervention of Baruj Benacerraf, both Nussenzweigs obtained Assistant Professorships at NYU, and moved permanently to the United States.
[4] Dr. Nussenzweig's family includes multiple people who have made significant contributions to research and academia, including husband Victor, Professor Emeritus at the NYU School of Medicine; son Michel C. Nussenzweig, Professor of Medicine at The Rockefeller University; daughter Sonia Nussenzweig-Hotimsky, Professor of Anthropology at the Foundation School of Sociology and Politics in São Paulo; and son Andre Nussenzweig, Distinguished Investigator at the National Institutes of Health.