Professor Koji Nakanishi

Koji Nakanishi received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Nagoya University, followed by post-graduate studies at Harvard University (U.S.A.), then obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Nagoya University in 1954. He taught in three of the leading universities in Japan, namely, Nagoya, Kyaiku, and Tahoka. In 1969, he joined Columbia University’s (CU) Department of Chemistry, where he was appointed as a Centennial Professor of Chemistry in 1980. He was also a Chairman of the Chemistry Department at CU, a founding member and a Director of Research at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, and the first Director of the Suntry Institute for Bioorganic Research in Osaka, Japan. He played a significant role in establishing the Brazilian government’s Institute of Medicinal and Ecological Chemistry, a center of excellence in the Amazons with headquarters in Sao Paulo. He also initiated a chemistry unit within Biosphere 2, Arizona, operated by CU.

Professor Nakanishi was a leading figure in the isolation and structure determination of biologically active natural products. He designed versatile techniques to study these products beyond the limits imposed by the miniscule quantity of material; this enabled him to determine the structure of more than 350 compounds and to elucidate the structural basis for the activity of some carcinogens, neurotoxins, anti-cancer agents, and other bioactive compounds that affect human, animal, and plant life. His long-term studies on the interaction of light with rhodopsin, the pigment molecule responsible for vision, are close to solving the mystery of macular degeneration, a condition that can cause blindness and for which no treatment is presently known.

Professor Nakanishi published more than 700 papers and authored, co-authored, and edited 9 books on spectroscopy and natural products, including the 8-volume text: Comprehensive Natural Products Chemistry (jointly with D.H.R. Barton) and his 1991 autobiography: A Wandering Natural Products Chemist, published by the American Chemical Society. The 425 former students of Nakanishi’s and members of his research group (95 in Japan and 330 at CU) are now occupying leading positions around the world.

Professor Nakanishi was the most decorated chemist in the world; he received numerous prestigious awards and honors by over a dozen different nations and by numerous scientific organizations. The Emperor of Japan awarded him the title of “Person of Cultural Merit,” which is considered one of the highest awards in Japan. A major prize was named for him; the Nakanishi Prize of the American Chemical Society and the Chemical Society of Japan. He was also awarded honorary doctorates from Williams College, Georgetown University and the University of Uppsala. In 1999, a group of his former students and post-doctoral fellows published The Biology – Chemistry Interface: A Tribute to Koji Nakanishi. Apart from being an exceptionally talented chemist, Nakanishi was also a talented magician.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.