Academic Biography

Artem Patapoutian was born in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon in 1967. He received his primary
education at the Hovakimyan-Manukian College in Beirut, after which he continued his studies at the
American University of Beirut. In 1986 They moved to the USA with their family. In 1990, Artem
Patapoutian received a bachelor’s degree in cell and developmental biology at the University of
California, and in 1996 he defended his PhD thesis in biology at the California Institute of Technology.
In 2000 he became a lecturer at Scripps Research Institute. 2000-2014 gets another research
position at the "Novartis" research foundation.
Since 2014, he has been working as a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is the
only Armenian scientist who is a true member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a structure
that includes most of the Nobel laureates. In 2020, Patapoutian, together with David Julius, was
awarded the prestigious Kavli Prize in the field of neurosurgery. This prestigious award is given every
two years to scientists who have made significant discoveries in astrophysics, nanotechnology, and
neuroscience. In 2021, our compatriot and his colleague David Julius were awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physiology and Medicine for the discovery of heat and touch receptors. Currently, he works as a
professor at the Scripps Research Institute.