Akira Suzuki

Akira Suzuki is a Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 for his work on Palladium catalyzed cross coupling reactions, together with Richard F. Heck and Ei-ichi Negishi. Suzuki developed “Suzuki coupling” or “Suzuki-Miyaura reaction” in 1981 with his colleague Norio Miyaura.

Akira Suzuki studied Chemistry at Hokkaido University. He worked there as an assistant professor after receiving his PhD in 1959. From 1963-65, Suzuki worked as a post doctoral at Purdue University. After returning to Hokkaido University he continued as Professor till 1994. After his retirement from Hokkaido University, he served as Professor Synthetic Organic Chemistry at Okayama University of Science (1994-95) and Kurashiki University (1995-2002).

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Suzuki was also honored with the Chemical Society of Japan Award (1989), The Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy (2004) and the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure 2005.

CHEMIST (Chemist)