Nakanishi Prize


The Nakanishi Prize, named after Japanese chemist Koji Nakanishi, is an award in chemistry given alternately by the Chemical Society of Japan and the American Chemical Society.

Purpose

"To recognize and stimulate significant work that extends chemical and spectroscopic methods to the study of important biological phenomena."

History

In 1995, friends and colleagues of Nakanishi established the Nakanishi Prize. It was decided that the Chemical Society of Japan and the American Chemical Society would alternate years awarding the prize. There are two separate endowments for the prize for each society, but the prize is the same for both awards: a medallion in presentation box, $5,000 prize money, and $2,500 travel reimbursements.

Recipients

Source:
YearRecipientInstitutionRationaleAwarded by
1996Yoshimasa HirataNagoya UniversityChemical Society of Japan
1997Frank H. WestheimerHarvard UniversityAmerican Chemical Society
1998Albert J. EschenmoserETH ZurichChemical Society of Japan
1999Jeremy R. KnowlesHarvard UniversityAmerican Chemical Society
2000Satoshi ŌmuraKitasato UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2001John D. RobertsCalifornia Institute of TechnologyAmerican Chemical Society
2002Sir Jack BaldwinUniversity of OxfordChemical Society of Japan
2003A. Ian ScottTexas A&M UniversityAmerican Chemical Society
2004Isao KitagawaKyoritsu College of Pharmacy
Osaka University
Chemical Society of Japan
2005Stephen J. BenkovicPennsylvania State UniversityAmerican Chemical Society
2006Takeshi YasumotoTohoku University
Okinawa Science and Technology Promotion Center
For his "contribution to the chemistry of seafood poisonings and analytical study on dynamism of the causative toxic molecules among marine ecology"Chemical Society of Japan
2007Hung-wen LiuUniversity of Texas at AustinAmerican Chemical Society
2008Michel RohmerLouis Pasteur UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2009JoAnne StubbeMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyFor identifying the role of radical intermediates in ribonucleotide reductase functionsAmerican Chemical Society
2010Shosuke YamamuraKeio UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2011C. Dale PoulterUniversity of UtahAmerican Chemical Society
2012Daisuke UemuraKanagawa UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2013Arthur G. Palmer IIIColumbia UniversityAmerican Chemical Society
2014Jerrold MeinwaldCornell UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2015Fred W. McLaffertyCornell UniversityFor developing “top-down proteomics” for characterizing a protein's sequence and modificationsAmerican Chemical Society
2016Shoichi KusumotoChemical Society of Japan
2017Martin GruebeleAmerican Chemical Society
2018Nobuyuki HaradaTohoku UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2019Lewis E. KayUniversity of TorontoAmerican Chemical Society
2020Yoshito KishiHarvard UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2021Mei HongMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyAmerican Chemical Society
2022Takenori KusumiTokushima UniversityChemical Society of Japan
2023Gilad HaranWeizmann Institute of ScienceAmerican Chemical Society
2024Minoru Isobe