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Nagoya University

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

International Education & Exchange Center

History | World-class Researchers

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2001

In October 2001, the Royal Swedish Academy announced its award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Dr. Ryoji Noyori and Dr. W. S. Knowles (USA) for their work on chirally catalyzed hydrogenation reactions, and to Dr. K. B. Sharpless (USA) for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions. Their research - an important topic of study in the 20th century - enabled Dr. Noyori and his fellow laureates to realize their dream of making possible the artificial and preferential production of enantiomers. Enantiomers are molecules existing in many organic compounds that are mirror images of each other but not identical, i.e., with a right-and left-side relationship but with each side having a different character. While one side could become a promising medicine, the other could equally become a dangerous toxin. It has therefore become a major issue in chemistry to find ways to preferentially produce right-and left-side products. Dr. Noyori's research makes it possible to artificially produce right-and left-side molecules using catalysts. This research has tremendous potential in the creation and production of medicines, aromatic chemicals, and materials in harmony with the natural environment.
In 1957, Dr. Noyori entered the Undergraduate School of Industrial Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University, and later was appointed associate professor at Nagoya University, involved in synthetic organic chemistry. After switching his research base from Nagoya University to Harvard for postdoctoral work, he returned to Nagoya University and become a full professor in 1972. The research contacts he made with many renowned chemists offered him expanded opportunity to continue his search for the development and application of new methodologies in the field of organic chemistry. Presently, Dr. Noyori is an organic chemist based at Nagoya University and president of the RIKEN and continues to realize remarkable achievements in the field of organic chemistry through his collaborations with numerous researchers worldwide.

Dr. Ryoji NOYORI

• 1967 Ph.D., Kyoto University
• 1968 Associate Professor of Chemistry, Nagoya University
• 1997-1999 Dean, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
• 2003-University Professor, Nagoya University

Nobel Prize in Physics, 2008

In October 2008, the Academy announced its award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to three esteemed scientists: Yoichiro Nambu (USA), and Nagoya University graduates Toshihide Maskawa, a Distinguished Invited University Professor at Nagoya University, professor emeritus at Kyoto University, and professor of physics at Kyoto Sangyo University, and Makoto Kobayashi, professor emeritus at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). The two Nagoya University scientists received the Nobel Prize for forecasting, over three decades ago, the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature. In 1972, the two presented their Kobayashi-Maskawa theory, which states that CP symmetry violation can be explained with six types of quarks, one of the subatomic particles that constitute matter. This theory was proved in 1995 with the discovery of the sixth quark, known as the top quark. Among the numerous theories attempting to explain CP symmetry violation, the Kobayashi-Maskawa theory remains the most concise and well-formed, and today is one of the key components of the standard model of particle physics.

Professor Maskawa graduated from Nagoya University's School of Science in 1962. After completing his doctoral course in science in 1967, he continued his career as a research associate in the science department, then as a professor of the Institute of Nuclear Study at the University of Tokyo and later as a professor at Kyoto University's Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP). In 2003, he became a professor at Kyoto Sangyo University's Faculty of Science, and in October 2007 was appointed Distinguished Invited University Professor at Nagoya University. Professor Kobayashi graduated from Nagoya University in 1967 and, after completing his doctoral course in science in 1972, became a research associate at Kyoto University's Faculty of Science. He later became a professor at KEK, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, and then director of the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies at KEK before becoming a professor emeritus at the same institute.

Dr. Toshihide MASKAWA

• 1962 Graduated from School of Science, Nagoya University
• 1967 Ph.D., Nagoya University Research Associate, School of Science, Nagoya University
• 2007-Distinguished Invited University Professor, Nagoya University
• 2009-University Professor, Nagoya University

Dr. Makoto KOBAYASHI

• 1967 Graduated from School of Science, Nagoya University
• 1972 Ph.D., Nagoya University
• 2008-Distinguished Invited University Professor, Nagoya University
• 2009-University Professor, Nagoya University

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2008

It was great news in October 2008 when organic chemist and marine biologist Professor Osamu Shimomura from Nagoya University was announced as one of three distinguished scientists to receive the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing it with Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego. They received this award for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP. Professor Shimomura was the first to discover and successfully refine GFP in luminous jellyfish. Using this GFP as a marker, it is now possible to directly observe protein behavior in living cells. This significantly contributes to the development of molecular biology and biosciences.
Professor Shimomura spent two and a half years at Nagoya University's School of Science as a research student and received his PhD in Sciences in 1960. In that same year, he went to Princeton University as a Fulbright scholar, then returned to Japan and for two years beginning in 1963 was an associate professor in the School of Science at Nagoya University. Today he is a professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University Medical School.

Dr. Osamu SHIMOMURA

• 1960 Ph.D., Nagoya University
• 1963 Associate Professor, School of Science, Nagoya University
• 2008-Distinguished Invited University Professor, Nagoya University
• 2009-University Professor, Nagoya University