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Ryoji Noyori (野依良治 Noyori Ryōji) (born September 3, 1938) is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001. Noyori shared half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the Prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his study in chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation).
[edit] BiographyRyoji Noyori was born in Kobe, Japan. He became fascinated with chemistry at age twelve, after hearing a presentation on nylon. He saw the power of chemistry as being the ability to "make high values from almost nothing". He became a student at Kyoto University, working as an instructor in the research group of Hotosi Nozaki before being appointed associate professor at Nagoya University. After postdoctoral work with Elias J. Corey at Harvard he returned to Nagoya, becoming a full professor in 1972. He is still based at Nagoya, though he is also now president of RIKEN, a multi-site national research initiative with an annual budget of $800 million. In 2000 Noyori became Honorary Doctor at the University of Rennes 1 where he taught in 1995[1], and in 2005, he became Honorary Doctor at Technical University of Munich and RWTH Aachen University, Germany. [edit] ResearchNoyori believes strongly in the power of catalysis and of green chemistry; in a recent article he argues for the pursuit of "practical elegance in synthesis".[2] In this article he states that "our ability to devise straightforward and practical chemical syntheses is indispensable to the survival of our species." Elsewhere he has said that "Research is for nations and mankind, not for researchers themselves." He encourages scientists to be politically active- "Researchers must spur public opinions and government policies toward constructing the sustainable society in the 21st century."[3] Noyori is currently a chairman of the Education Rebuilding Council, which was set up by Japan's PM Shinzo Abe after he came to power in 2006.[4] Noyori is most famous for asymmetric hydrogenation using as catalysts complexes of rhodium and ruthenium, particularly those based on the BINAP ligand. (See Noyori asymmetric hydrogenation) Asymmetric hydrogenation of an alkene in the presence of ((S)-BINAP)Ru(OAc)2 is used for the commercial production of enantiomerically pure (97% ee) naproxen, used as an anti-inflammatory drug. The anti-bacterial agent levofloxacin is manufactured by asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones in the presence of a Ru(II) BINAP halide complex. He has also worked on other asymmetric processes. Each year 3000 tonnes (after new expansion) of menthol are produced (in 94% ee) by Takasago International Co., using Noyori's method for isomerisation of allylic amines.   More recently he and Jessop have developed an industrial process for the manufacture of N,N-dimethylformamide from hydrogen, dimethylamine and supercritical carbon dioxide in the presence of RuCl2(PMe3)4 as catalyst.[5] [edit] Publications
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Categories: 1938 births | Living people | Members of the National Academy of Sciences | People from Kobe | Harvard University staff | Kyoto University alumni | Japanese chemists | Nobel laureates in Chemistry | Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates | Foreign Members of the Royal Society | Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences | Japanese Nobel laureates | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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