Emory University announces recipients of the 2026 Max Cooper Prize in Immunology
September 3, 2026
After reviewing notable and highly regarded nominees from across the world, a prize jury has selected three immunologists as the 2026 recipients of Emory University's Max Cooper Prize in Immunology. The honor recognizes the awardees for their transformative and revolutionary achievements in the field and the $100,000 award will be shared equally between the three researchers.
Thomas Boehm, MD, is research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. Boehm won the award for his pioneering work in evolutionary immunology, comparing immune systems across a wide range of vertebrate species to uncover the conserved principles behind how adaptive immunity evolves and functions.
“It is a great honor to jointly receive this prestigious award with two of my esteemed colleagues,” Boehm says. “Max Cooper is one of my scientific heroes; he epitomizes the combination of an exceptional physician and a brilliant scientist and has been a guiding light for my own work.”
Klaus Rajewsky, MD, is group leader with Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. He is recognized for shaping the field of molecular immunology by developing gene-targeting tools, giving immunologists the ability to precisely dissect gene function in specific cell types.
“What a unique privilege and honor to receive this prize, named after Max Cooper, an admired scientist and old friend,” says Rajewsky. “And it is a privilege to receive it together with esteemed fellow scientists, who have all done ground-breaking work in immunology, our beloved common research area.”
Tadatsugu Taniguchi, PhD, is professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Taniguchi won the award for transforming the cytokine field from a descriptive and phenomenological discipline to one firmly anchored in molecular science, by cloning interferon and interleukin genes and discovering the IRF transcription factors.
“It is my great honor to receive this prestigious award with two of the world’s most prominent immunologists,” says Taniguchi. “Since I admire tremendously Prof. Max Cooper as the world’s leader of immunology in our time, this is truly a double pleasure and honor for me.”
The recipients will be honored at The Emory Max Cooper Prize Symposium scheduled for Sept. 29, 2026.
The Max Cooper Prize award’s namesake, Max D. Cooper, MD, is a renowned immunologist at Emory University, whose discoveries over more than six decades of research fundamentally changed science’s understanding of the adaptive immune system with implications for treatment of human disease. His contributions to the field earned him worldwide recognition. The honor recognizes this year’s recipients for their transformative and revolutionary achievements in the field.
About Max Cooper
Max D. Cooper, who joined Emory in 2008, is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and the Emory Vaccine Center, as well as a member of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. He is widely known for his discovery of B cells and for his pioneering studies on the evolution of the immune system.
