{"id":2,"date":"2022-11-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:15:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:15:25","slug":"front","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/","title":{"rendered":"HOME"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryoji Noyori Prize<\/h2>\n
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Professor Manfred Reetz<\/h3>\n

Emeritus Director and Head of the External Research Group Biocatalysis at Max-Planck-Institut f\u00fcr Kohlenforschung, Germany<\/p>\n

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2025<\/div>\n

Professor Reetz has made outstanding contributions to biocatalysis and protein engineering by integrating organic chemistry with molecular biology, along with his achievements in transition metal catalysis and other organic synthesis methodologies. He pioneered the directed evolution of enzymes by developing innovative methods for the semi-rational design of biocatalysts for chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective transformations. Key techniques he introduced include the combinatorial active-site saturation test (CAST), which improves enzyme selectivity and efficiency through targeted mutations at the active site. His advancements in high-throughput screening have accelerated enzyme optimization, making directed evolution a practical tool for asymmetric synthesis. Thus, Professor Reetz has greatly enhanced the role of biocatalysts in sustainable industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Thorsten Bach<\/h3>\n

Professor of Organic Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences and Catalysis Research Center, Technische Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen, Germany<\/p>\n

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2024<\/div>\n

Professor Bach is the pioneer of enantioselective photochemistry and one of the leading experts in the field. He and his group showed successfully that chirality can be introduced by photochemical transformations, both in a stoichiometric and a catalytic sense. By using hydrogen bonding interactions, a temporary chiral confinement was created in which photochemical reactions proceeded with high enantioselectivity. Bach established the use of chiral Lewis acids for catalytic photochemical reactions, and he successfully devised chiral sensitizers as catalysts for visible light-induced asymmetric photochemistry. In recent years, he demonstrated that photochemistry can be employed to convert racemic mixtures into single enantiomers (photochemical deracemization) employing either a selective triplet energy transfer or a reversible hydrogen atom transfer as vehicle to facilitate the counter-thermodynamic process. His creative ideas and his ground-breaking research accomplishments have taken photochemistry to the next level of complexity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Kenso Soai<\/h3>\n

Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Science, Japan<\/p>\n

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2023<\/div>\n

Professor Soai made a groundbreaking discovery in the realm of chirality by identifying the first instance of asymmetric autocatalysis involving 5-pyrimidyl alkanol in the enantioselective addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde, called as the Soai reaction. Asymmetric autocatalysis is a reaction in which a chiral product serves as a catalyst for its own production. The Soai reaction exhibits the remarkable capability to significantly enhance the enantiomeric excess of the initial asymmetric autocatalyst, transforming it into a near-enantiopure compound during the consecutive asymmetric autocatalysis. Furthermore, his research delved into the origins of chirality, using various chiral triggers within the Soai reaction to relate to the chirality of highly enantioenriched organic compounds. The Soai reaction was found to be triggered by diverse factors, including chiral minerals, circularly polarized light, chiral crystals composed of achiral compounds like \u03b3-glycine and isotope chirality. Most astonishingly, the Soai reaction demonstrated the ability to achieve spontaneous absolute asymmetric synthesis without any external chiral factors. Thus, Professor Soai has made invaluable contributions to the study of chirality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Gregory C. Fu<\/h3>\n

Norman Chandler Professor of Chemistry, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, USA.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
2022<\/div>\n

Professor Fu has made important contributions to the development of new synthetic methods based on his original design of catalysts and reactions. Fu designed planar-chiral nucleophilic catalysts by fusing DMAP to ferrocene for a variety of asymmetric reactions as represented by acylative kinetic resolution. This achievement, where nitrogen atoms in designed catalysts function as a \u201cworking element\u201d in asymmetric catalysis, served as an early contribution to the field of \u201casymmetric organocatalysis\u201d. Fu\u2019s research interests also include transition-metal catalysis. He established a way to utilize unreactive chloroarenes in Pd-catalyzed sp2<\/sup>\u2013sp2<\/sup> cross-couplings using tri-t<\/i>-butylphosphine as a ligand. Fu then turned his attention to asymmetric sp3<\/sup>\u2013sp3<\/sup> carbon\u2013carbon bond-forming cross-couplings using chiral nickel catalysts. His work on enantioconvergent reactions of racemic electrophiles is particularly notable. Fu also succeeded in asymmetric sp3<\/sup> carbon\u2013heteroatom bond-forming cross-couplings using chiral copper catalysts under irradiation of light. Unlike conventional transition metal\/photosensitizer binary catalyst systems, his system needs only a single catalyst. Fu\u2019s achievements are admired not only for their superb profiles and the uniqueness of the individual reactions, but also for their role in pioneering new research fields and applications in organic synthesis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mukaiyama Award<\/h2>\n
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Professor Bill Morandi<\/h3>\n

ETH Zurich,Laboratorium f\u00fcr Organische Chemie, Switzerland<\/p>\n

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2026<\/div>\n

Contributions: The Morandi group has developed a wide range of conceptually novel reactions (e.g. shuttle catalysis, single-bond metathesis, nitrogen atom insertion) which provide new approaches to construct, edit, or deconstruct organic molecules, thus significantly advancing the area of organic chemistry. The group has also leveraged these new reactions in interdisciplinary applications (e.g. recyclable polymers, waste upcycling, peptide editing) and studied their mechanisms in great depth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Koji Hirano<\/h3>\n

Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Osaka, Japan<\/p>\n

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2026<\/div>\n

Contributions: Dr. Hirano’s research centers on pioneering new electrophilic transformations in organic synthesis, focusing on two key concepts: extended umpolung and multiply charged cations. These innovative approaches offer powerful new methodologies, especially valuable for constructing complex molecules. The extended umpolung strategy allows for highly chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective electrophilic amination and etherification reactions. This is achieved using hydroxylamines and specifically designed acetal-based peroxides under copper catalysis. His work with multiply charged cations enables the rapid construction of highly p-conjugated (hetero)aromatic systems, which are challenging to synthesize via other routes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Weldon G. Brown Professor of Chemistry Guangbin Dong<\/h3>\n

Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, USA<\/p>\n

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2025<\/div>\n

Contributions: Research in the Dong group focuses on developing new and synthetically useful transformations. First, his team explores catalytic C-C bond activation as a useful tool for constructing or modifying complex molecular skeletons. Additionally,Dong is a leading contributor to the palladium\/norbornene catalysis, which enablessite-selective arene functionalizations and carbonyl transposition. Moreover, the Donggroup has pioneered new activation modes for functionalizing C-H bonds of carbonyl compounds. Finally, his work in boron chemistry lays the foundation for programmable organic synthesis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Kohsuke Ohmatsu<\/h3>\n

Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Japan<\/p>\n

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2025<\/div>\n

Contributions: Research led by Ohmatsu has focused on designing ionic molecular catalysts to address challenges in synthetic organic chemistry. By leveraging the unique properties of ionic organic molecules to construct chiral architectures, a novel strategy for catalyst design has emerged, enabling previously difficult asymmetric transformations. The concept of photocatalytic reactivity of ions has created a groundbreaking platform for both innovative reaction development<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Ryan A. Shenvi<\/h3>\n

Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA<\/p>\n

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2024<\/div>\n

Contributions: The Shenvi group is known for its innovations in complex synthesis and catalysis, especially the hypothesis that metal hydride hydrogen atom transfer (MHAT) is more widespread among base metal catalyzed reactions than previously appreciated. Research in Shenvi\u2019s laboratory spans mechanistic study, method development and total synthesis, as well as biological investigation via collaboration with other groups. The Shenvi group has also introduced a different view of the field of natural product synthesis, where they are considered leaders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Junichiro Yamaguchi<\/h3>\n

Department of Applied Chemistry, Waseda University, Japan<\/p>\n

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2024<\/div>\n

Contributions: Towards create complex molecules, Yamaguchi focused on the commonly used functional groups and aromatic rings found in organic compounds and developed catalytic transformations to break them. The research directed by Yamaguchi has created a new trend in synthetic organic chemistry, including common functional group-cleavage couplings, bond exchange reactions, and catalytic dearomatization functionalization using unique molecular catalysts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Sarah E. Reisman<\/h3>\n

Bren Professor of Chemistry Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA, USA<\/p>\n

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2023<\/div>\n

Contributions: Research in the Reisman laboratory seeks to advance the science of chemical synthesis, through synergistic contributions in both strategy design for natural product synthesis and reaction development. Reisman is recognized as a leader in the area of natural product synthesis, where her group has contributed new strategy-driven approaches several complex highly oxidized natural products. In addition to her program in natural product synthesis, Reisman has made impactful contributions to the rapidly advancing field of Ni-catalysis, with an emphasis on asymmetric reductive cross-coupling reactions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Naoya Kumagai<\/h3>\n

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Keio University, Japan<\/p>\n

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2023<\/div>\n

Contributions: The development of synthetic methodologies driven by cooperative catalysts, unique heterocycles, and quinoline oligomers. The research directed by Kumagai has focused on the development of novel metal-based cooperative catalytic systems that have allowed for otherwise infeasible catalytic asymmetric transformations to proceed. His insatiable curiosity into catalyst design has provided a novel class of proficient catalysts utilizing boron-containing exotic heterocyclic entities. His research interests have expanded to the investigation of quinoline-based aesthetic molecular architectures, which pertain to diverse areas of chemistry research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryoji Noyori Prize Professor Manfred Reetz Emeritus Director and Head of the External Research Group Biocataly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 02:21:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":""},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssocj.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}