Baruj Benacerraf was born in Venezuela in 1920 but has worked primarily at Harvard university. He has played a prominent role in many different areas of immunology. Thus during his studies on phagocytosis he was the first to show that cell mediated immune responses were directed against epitopes that required processing by cells. He identified the first Fc receptors on macrophages, clarified the mechanism of antibody affinity maturation, and helped to confirm the correctness of the clonal selection theory. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1980 for his role in demonstrating that MHC genes could control the ability of an animal to mount an immune response to a specific epiope. This lead to our current understanding of the way inwhich antigens are processed and bound to MHC molecules.

Tizard: Introduction to Immunology 4th ed p 88