Great Immigrant: Katalin Karikó
Born in Hungary, Katalin Karikó received a Nobel Prize for developing the scientific foundation for vaccines that were instrumental in fighting COVID-19. A new Carnegie-commissioned comic series highlights Karikó’s story and the stories of other naturalized citizens who enrich American society and strengthen our democracy
By Jongsma + O’Neill & Chuan Ming Ong
Mar 31, 2025
Katalin Karikó left her home country of Hungary with her husband and daughter in 1985, after her university position was eliminated. She stitched all their money into her daughter’s teddy bear and bought one-way tickets to the United States where she had found a position as a researcher in Pennsylvania. While she had worked with RNA while in graduate school in the 1970s, convincing others of its potential wasn’t always easy.
During her four decades working as a biochemist and researcher, Karikó never stopped believing in the power of mRNA technologies to fight disease. Along with immunologist Drew Weissman, she developed the scientific foundation that became the basis of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, which helped save lives and slowed the spread of the virus around the world. For their discoveries, Karikó and Weissman were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. “In scientific experiments, there’s no such thing as good or bad results,” Karikó has said. “Sometimes the most surprising results are the ones that lead to breakthroughs.”
Every Fourth of July, Carnegie Corporation of New York celebrates the exemplary contributions of immigrants to American life, as part of its focus on reducing political polarization and strengthening democracy. To highlight their stories, the foundation has commissioned a new comic series that illustrates how naturalized citizens enrich American society.
Download Katalin Karikó’s full comic here.
* Immigrants have been awarded 40% of Nobel Prizes won by Americans in Chemistry, Medicine, and Physics since 2000. (Source: Immigrants and Nobel Prizes: 1901–2023, National Foundation for American Policy, October 2023)
Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill lead Jongsma + O’Neill, a nonfiction storytelling studio. They are Sundance fellows, Emmy nominees, and the creators of the immersive exhibition Loot. 10 Stories, which won the 2024 XR-History Award.
Chuan Ming Ong is a Dutch illustrator whose illustrations have appeared in publications including the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and Nikkei Asia.
