George Emil Palade (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒe̯ord͡ʒe eˈmil paˈlade]; November 19, 1912 – October 8, 2008) was a Romanian-American cell biologist. He was described as "the most influential cell biologist ever"; in 1974 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, together with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve. The prize was granted for his innovations in electron microscopy and cell fractionation which together laid the foundations of modern molecular cell biology, the most notable discovery being the ribosomes of the endoplasmic reticulum – which he first described in 1955.