Katalin Karikó is a biochemist and winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Her pioneering research was the foundation of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and paves the way for a host of treatments for cancer, HIV, malaria and other life-threatening diseases. Now an honorary professor at many universities, she has been awarded over a hundred prizes, had two children’s books have been written about her and a minor planet named after her. She and her husband Béla are the parents of two-time Olympic rowing champion Susan Francia.