Thomas Boehm receives the 2026 Max Cooper Prize in Immunology
Recognition for his his pioneering work in evolutionary immunology
Thomas Boehm, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen and emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, has been awarded the 2026 Max Cooper Prize in Immunology together with Klaus Rajewsky from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin and Tadatsugu Taniguchi from the University of Tokyo.
Thomas Boehm has received the 2026 Max Cooper Prize in Immunology for his pioneering work in evolutionary immunology. He shares the award with the two immunologists Klaus Rajewsky from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin and Tadatsugu Tanguchi from the University of Tokyo.
By comparing the immune systems across a wide range of vertebrate species, Thomas Boehm has uncovered the fundamental, conserved principles behind how adaptive immunity evolves and functions. His contributions have repeatedly expanded the current understanding of the immune system, enabling an entirely new perspective on its evolution and functionality.
“It is a great honour 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.”
The award cermony will take place during the Emory Max Cooper Prize Symposium on 29 September 2026.
About the Emory Max Cooper Prize
The $100,000 Emory Max Cooper Prize in Immunology is an annual award honoring Dr. Max D. Cooper, whose historic discoveries have forever changed our understanding of the adaptive immune system. Max D. Cooper, joined Emory in 2008, and 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.
About Thomas Boehm
Thomas Boehm studied human medicine at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, with study stays at Columbia University in New York, USA, and at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, UK. In 1982, Thomas Boehm earned his doctorate in Frankfurt, where he also obtained his habilitation in 1988. After a five-year tenure at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, he took a professorship in Molecular Medicine at Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (1991) followed by a professorship in Experimental Therapy at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (1995). From 1998 to 2024, he was Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. Since 2024, Thomas Boehm has been Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen.
