Efraim Racker was an Austrian biochemist. Efraim Racker was born to a Jewish family in 1913 in Neu Sandez, Poland, but he grew up in Vienna. Efraim Racker was studying medicine at the University of Vienna when Hitler invaded in 1938. Ef received many honors for his research, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1966 and the New York Academy of Sciences in 1979.  He received the National Medal of Science in 1976, among numerous other awards, and held honorary doctorates from the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester. In September 6, 1991, Racker was felled by a severe stroke, and died in Syracuse three days after.