88 | December 2021 www.facs.website Ehud Keinan Professor Keinan of the Technion is President of the Israel Chemical Society, Editor-in-Chief of AsiaChem and the Israel Journal of Chemistry, Council Member of the Wolf Foundation, and past Board Member of EuChemS. He was Dean of Chemistry at the Technion, Head of the Institute of Catalysis, and Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Research Institute in California. His research program includes biocatalysis, organic synthesis, molecular computing, supramolecular chemistry, and drug discovery. He received the New England Award, the Herschel-Rich Award, the Henri Taub Prize, the Schulich Prize, the Asia-Pacific Triple E Award, AAAS Fellowship, the ACS Fellowship, and the EuChemS Award of Service. Since 2022 he is IUPAC VP and President-elect. Ryōji Noyori was born on September 3, 1938, in Kobe, Japan. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from Kyoto University. In 1967 he obtained a Doctor of Engineering degree from Kyoto University under Prof. Hitosi Nozaki, and in 1968 became an associate professor at Nagoya University. After postdoctoral work with Elias J. Corey at Harvard University, he returned to Nagoya, becoming a full professor in 1972. He served as president of RIKEN (2003-2015), and since 2015 he has been Director-General of CRDS (Center of Research and Development Strategy) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Noyori shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless. Noyori’s other prominent recognitions include the 1992 Asahi Prize, the 1993 Tetrahedron Prize, the 1995 Japan Academy Prize, the 1997 Arthur C. Cope Award, the 1999 King Faisal International Prize, the 2001 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2001 Roger Adams Award, and the 2009 Lomonosov Gold Medal. Our Zoom interview took place on September 27, 2021, about three weeks after his 83rd birthday. It was early morning in Israel and afternoon in Japan. By Ehud Keinan https://doi.org/10.51167/acm00028 Think Globally, Act Locally An interview with Prof. Ryōji Noyori How early in your childhood has science triggered your curiosity? Louis Pasteur once said, “Science has no borders, but scientists have their homeland.” Every scientist has a dif ferent social background. My life path is much different from that of Americans, Europeans, or even other Asians in many ways. Ehud, you live in the western end of Asia, while I live at the eastern end of Asia. Although we share the same values in science, we grew up in different social and cultural environments. My career as a scientist has been full of challenges, excitement, and joy, but at the same time, I had to overcome many obstacles. My own experiencemakes me think: what is behind the talent and intuition of a Japanese scientist? My generation had a challenging time after the devastation of WWII. Yet, we survived and even contributed a bit to the progress of science. How were we able
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