90 | December 2021 www.facs.website conditions. Our clothes, including underwear and socks, were all hand-made. I remember her busy repairing our clothes late at night, and we helped with cooking and gardening. My mother was clever, patient, and devoted her entire life to our family. I was happy to pay her back by taking her to Stockholm for the Centennial ceremony of the Nobel Prize in 2001. At that time, she was 87 and looked happy. My wife Hiroko learned much from her, mainly how to handle a complex person like myself. In my view, although Japan was in ruins at the end of WWII, the Japanese scientific intellect remained unaffected. I have aspired to become a scientist ever since I was a small child, strongly influenced by my father, a gifted research director at the Kanegafuchi chemical company. In 1949 when I was 11 years old at the 5th grade, Professor Hideki Yukawa of Kyoto won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was the first Japanese to receive a Nobel Prize, and I was especially delighted with this event because my parents knew him personally. Understandably, Yukawa has become my hero and a role model. Another momentous event occurred in 1951 when I entered junior high school in Kobe. My father took me to a symposium on a newly discovered fiber called Nylon, and I was the only child in the audience. The lecturer, President of the Toray Company, proudly explained, “This new fiber can be synthesized from coal, water, and air, and it is thinner than a spider’s thread, yet stronger than a steel wire.” I was overwhelmed. Here was a new material created by chemistry from almost nothing. From that moment, I began dreaming of becoming an industrial chemist. I wanted to invent new materials to benefit society and Japan’s economic recovery. At that time, Japan’s industry was still underdeveloped, far behind the Western countries. Many signif icant corporates worked under a technological license from American or European companies, and my father strongly disagreed with that trend. Every evening at the dinner table, he preached to our family on the significance of self-sustainability, saying, “We have to develop powerful technology by ourselves. Otherwise, Japan’s stagnated economy cannot recover.” My home was full of chemistry journals and books and various samples of polymer powders, beakers, and flasks. Then, my two younger brothers and I were convinced to study engineering at universities. We decided that I’d take industrial chemistry, and they would take mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Indeed, my two brothers pursued industrial careers. How supportive were your family and friends about your choice? My family was highly supportive. Perhaps, my father had expected me to become a chemical engineer in the industry rather than a university professor. Inmy middle and high school days in Kobe, my favorite subjects were mathematics and sciences. Interestingly, my first chemistry teacher was Kazuo Nakamoto, dispatched from Osaka University and later became an inorganic chemistry professor in the USA, first at the Illinois Institute of Technology and later at Marquette University. My mathematics teacher, Mr. Masanori Maino, taught us math and many other things, including Chinese poetry. Several other enthusiastic teachers triggered my appetite for chemistry even more. Another person I admired in connection with my future direction was Professor Ichiro Sakurada of Kyoto University, inventor of Vinylon, the first Japan-made synthetic fiber. He was one of the reasons I decided to study chemistry at Kyoto. The other reason was Professor Yukawa of the physics department at Kyoto University. In the mid-1950s, with the rapid development of the petrochemical industry, the chemistry departments within the engineering faculties attracted the best high school students. Did you receive appropriate formal education to become a scientist? If you ask about Japan’s public schools or university system, you may be surprised that my answer is probably NO. We grew up mainly by self-learning rather than formal, curriculum-based, Western-style education. Although I highly appreciate my mentors’ thoughtful guidance, giving me freedom, encouragement, and independence, I think that much of my background is self-education. I believe that systematic education, as done in the USA, is essential for nurturing Noyori was engaged in prostaglandin synthesis in E. J. Corey’s lab at Harvard in 1969–1970. Receiving the 1995 Japan Academy Prize, Noyori was congratulated by Member Kenichi Fukui (1981 Nobel laureate).
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