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Professor Koji Nakanishi was born in 1925 in Hong Kong. After taking a Bachelors degree in Japan, he was one of the first Japanese to come to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, working in the laboratories of the late Professor Louis F. Fieser, at Harvard University, from 1950-52. After returning to Japan, Professor Nakanish earned his Ph.D. degree from Nagoya University in 1954 and joined tbe faculty there as an assistant Professor, where he served from 1955-58. He moved to Tokyo Kyoiku University as Professor of Chemlstry (1958-63), then to Tohuku University (1963-69), and in 1969 to Columbia University where he is currently the Centennial Professor of Chemistry. He has served as Director of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Nairobi, Kenya (1967-77) and is currently an Adjunct professor in the Department of Pharmacognosy at the University of Rhode Island and the Director of the Suntory Institute for Bioorganic Research. Professor Nakanishi has authored in excess of 330 scientific papers and has received numerous well-deserved honors and awards including the Award in Pure Chemistry - Chemical Society of Japan, the Asahi Cultural Award, the ACS Ernest Guenther Award, the Chemical Society of Japan Award, the E. E, Smissman Medal, the Harold C. Urey Award, and the Remsen Award. In 1973 Professor Nakanishi was elected as a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the 1950's and 1960's he pioneered research into the use of infrared spectroscopy and other physico-chemical techniques in the structure determination of naturally occurring substances. He has developed numerous invaluable techniques for the determination of absolute stereochemistry, including the dibenzoate sector rule, and described the use of transition metals in chiroptical and NMR studies.
More recently he has performed innovative studies in the areas of bioassay-directed, microscale, isolation and structure elucidation of natural products from plant, insect and animal sources. This work, especially that directed toward insect antifeedant agents has inspired many workers in the area and has provided enticing target structures for total synthesis. Professor Nakanishi has been involved in crucial studies which have described the importance of insect juvenile hormones and molting hormones as well as plant growth regulators and he has successfully completed syntheses of a number of these agents.
Over the last seven to ten years Professor Nakanishi has devoted a great deal of time and effort to the field of vision chemistry. The results of this effort have been outstanding. He and his group have prepared numerous analogues of the visual chromophore and, as a result of binding studies, have probed deeper and deeper into the mysteries of visual transduction
Koji Nakanishi is an inspiring, innovative, and helpful scientist. He is a modest, unassuming, and warm person and is a most thoughtful and considerate research supervisor and colleague.
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