Japan has produced a Nobel laureate in chemistry this year, following its win in physiology or medicine.
Japan's NHK broadcaster reported in a news flash on the 8th that one of the three Nobel chemistry laureates is Susumu Kitagawa (74), a distinguished professor at Kyoto University, emphasizing it as "good news."
Professor Kitagawa graduated from Kyoto University's Department of Petrochemistry and also completed his doctoral program at Kyoto University's graduate school. After teaching at Kinki University and Tokyo Metropolitan University, he returned to his alma mater, Kyoto University, in 1998 to serve as a professor.
He has worked on developing "metal-organic frameworks" (Metal-Organic Frameworks, MOF) using the bonding reactions of metal ions and organic compounds. In 1997, he was the first in the world to demonstrate that the countless pores in these materials can absorb gases in large quantities.
NHK noted that last year Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), a group representing atomic bomb victims, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and on the 6th Sakaguchi Shimon, a specially appointed professor at Osaka University, had the honor of receiving the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
A Japanese scholar receiving the Nobel Prize in chemistry is the first in 6 years since Asahi Kasei's Yoshino Akira, Ph.D., in 2019, and the ninth overall.
A Japanese individual receiving a Nobel Prize marks the 30th time, including four people born in Japan who later acquired foreign nationality. The Nobel Prize–winning organization is one group, Hidankyo.
Including those who acquired foreign nationality, this is the fifth time that two or more Nobel laureates have emerged in a single year. It is the first time in 10 years since 2015, when there was one laureate each in physiology or medicine and physics.
By field, Japan's Nobel prizes include 12 in physics, 9 in chemistry, 6 in physiology or medicine, and 2 in literature. For the Peace Prize, there is 1 individual and 1 organization. There are no laureates in economic sciences.
From 2000 to 2002, Japanese scholars received the Nobel Prize in chemistry three years in a row. In 2002, Japan produced laureates in both chemistry and physics. In 2008, four Japanese scholars, including one who had acquired foreign nationality, received Nobel Prizes simultaneously.