Koji Nakanishi
Koji Nakanishi (Japanese中西 香 尔, Koji Nakanishi, born May 11, 1925 in Hong Kong) is a Japanese chemist. He is specialized in organic chemistry.
Life
Due to his father's profession, his family moved around quite often. He spent his first ten years in Hong Kong, more in Lyon (France ), London ( England) and Alexandria ( Egypt). 1935 the family moved to Osaka (Japan). In 1947 he completed his academic training at the University of Nagoya. After the war, he married his wife Yasuko, with whom he has two children. Nakanishi lives in New York.
Scientific career
Nakanishi studied chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Nagoya. After a post- graduatierten studies with LF Fieser at Harvard University (1950-1952), he received his doctorate in 1954 at the University of Nagoya (F. Egami, Y. Hirata ). After several professorships ( Faculty of Chemistry, Nagoya University 1955-1958; Faculty of Chemistry, Pedagogical University of Tokyo from 1958 to 1963, Tohoku University, Sendai 1963-1969 ) teaches and works since 1969 in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University in New York. In 1980 he was there Centennial Professor and was from 1987 to 1990 director of the Department of Chemistry. He was a founding member of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology ( ICIPE ) in Kenya and was director of the Suntory Institute for Bioorganic Research at 1978 until 1991. Moreover, he was Director of the Biosphere 2 project from 2001 to 2003. Nakanishi has received numerous international awards, including the Ernest Guenther Award ( 1978).
Scientific Importance
His area of interest is the Natural Product Research. Nakanishi isolated more than 200 hitherto unknown natural compounds and examined their biological effect. He is a pioneer of the use of spectrometric and chemical methods for structure determination. The ingredients of the ginkgo tree ( ginkgolides and bilobalide and Others ), he devoted about 30 publications.
Family
Nakanishi's nephew Shigetada is a biologist and director of the Institute for Bioscience Osaka ( Osaka Baiosaiensu Kenkyujo ), Gruber and Asahi Prize winner.