Richard Axel is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won him and Linda Buck, a former postdoctoral research scientist in his group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004, announced October 4, 2004. Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck, “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system”. Richard Axel: born 1946, New York, NY, USA. Linda B. Buck: born 1947, Seattle, WA, USA. Wiki link Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).