www.asiachem.news December 2021 | 93 chemical engineer, and you have attended the best possible schools where you had excellent teachers, includingprimary school, the Nada Middle and High School. Yet, as a young pupil, you preferred having a good timewith friends, playingbaseball, practicing Judo, andgoingon trips rather thanstudying. You joined the rugby football club at Kyoto University andpreferred social activitieswith friends andwine. You became serious about science only after joining the group of Hitosi Nozaki. So, perhaps the most effective way to attract the young generation to science is by singular events of personal experience, like the “NylonCase” of your childhood. Such Eureka moments at a very early age can be more valuable than armies of teachers. I suspect that your father had this idea inmind, taking you to the event to create an unforgettable experience that could attract you to science. Do you agree with that approach? I agree that accidental encounters are very influential in motivating young people. In analogy to chemistry, such singular events serve as catalysts, and they are more effective than stoichiometric formal education. I remember another singular event when my father, on the occasion of the Nylon case, took me to a small restaurant for dinner with his colleagues. Wewere very poor at that time, and I was impressed by the unfamiliar, though now casual, rich menu, the group of enthusiastic industrial chemists, and the frank conversation around the dinner table. That unforgettable event impressed me so much that I aspired to be like them. Only years later, Hitosi Nozaki convinced me to switch my aspiration from industrial to an academic career. Science has attracted me in multiple ways. One of themwas the feeling that a scientist can do anything at will. Another essential factor is freedom and the sense that I can do anything by myself as a scientist. University professors should nurture their young students by pushing themtopursue an independent research career and provide themwith maximal freedom. I was attracted to the academic mentality at the universities, which is quite different from the corporate or governmental institutions. Furthermore, academic research depends much on the mindset and personality of every scientist. To encourage young science students, I often cite the statement of Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” At every age, the young students should explore new frontiers, and we must be patient as they make their way. Youth are creating new science on the assets founded by their predecessors. The young generation should be proud that their perseverant study and research lie higher than Einstein, Watson and Click, Ziegler and Natta, or R. B. Woodward, as Max Weber noticed, “Science is destined to make progress.” Many young chemists grow to become researchers, shaping future science, and we should remember that science is a single entity because it stems from the common laws of nature. Therefore, research must be interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary, or even anti-disciplinary to create new scientific fields. As all disciplines deal with materials, chemistry links all scientific domains since all materials consist of atoms and molecules. So, I am asking our younger generation to understand that chemistry is the central science. Schroedinger asked in 1944, “What is life?” and Jim Watson, who pioneered molecular biology, responded, “Life is simply a matter of chemistry.” And in this century, many Nobel Prizes in Chemistry recognized research in the interface between chemistry and physics or the life sciences. 1. Congratulating Satoshi Omura (right) who was just announced to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. October, 2015 in Tokyo. 2. Yuan-Tseh Lee (1986 Nobel laureate, left) was conferred the title of RIKEN Honorary Fellow in March, 2011. Together with Mrs. Lee and Ryōji Noyori, President of RIKEN 3. In his office of the Center for Research and Development Strategy, Japan Science and Technology Agency. In Tokyo, 2015 1 2 3
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