George Emil Palade ForMemRS HonFRMS (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒe̯ord͡ʒe eˈmil paˈlade] (

listen); November 19, 1912 – October 7, 2008) was a Romanian-American cell biologist.
Described as "the most influential cell biologist ever",[3] in 1974 he was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physiology and Medicine along with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve. The prize was
granted for his innovations in electron microscopy and cell fractionation which together laid the
foundations of modern molecular cell biology,[3] the most notable discovery being the ribosomes
of the endoplasmic reticulum – which he first described in 1955.[4][5][6][7]

Palade also received the U.S. National Medal of Science in Biological Sciences for "pioneering
discoveries of a host of fundamental, highly organized structures in living cells" in 1986, and
was previously elected a Member of the US National Academy of Science in 1961. In 1968 he
elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (HonFRMS).[8] and in 1984 he
was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS).[1]