Research rewarded.

L.A. financier David Polak's philanthropy paid off last week in a big way: The Israeli scientist he's backed for the past decade went to Stockholm to pick up the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

"It's not too often you're connected with a Nobel prize," said Polak, founder and chairman emeritus of NWQ Investment Management Co. "It's a privilege to be associated with such an enormous event."

Polak and his wife Janet donated $500,000 to fund a chair at Israel's Technion Faculty of Medicine in the early 1990s. The position was awarded to Aaron Ciechanover, who was researching proteins. Later, based on Ciechanover's involvement, the Polaks pledged $2.6 million to establish the David and Janet Polak Center for Cancer Research and Vascular Biology at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Ciechanover, his colleague Avram Hershko and Dr. Irwin A. Rose of UC Irvine will share the Nobel for their work, which has already led to development of the cancer treatment Velcade and has the potential for treatment of leukemia, cystic fibrosis and neurological diseases such as Parksinson's.