Nagakura Saburō

Nagakura Saburō ( Japanese 長 倉 三郎 ; born October 3, 1920 in Numazu ( Shizuoka Prefecture ); died April 16, 2020 ) was a Japanese physical chemist and science organizer.

Live and act

Nagakura Saburō graduated from the Department of Physics at Tōkyō University in 1943 . He became an assistant professor and in 1959 a professor at his alma mater. In 1961 he became a senior employee at the state research facility in Riken . When he was retired as "Meiyo Kyōju" in 1981, he became director of the state "Institute for Molecular Science" (分子 科学 研究所, Bunshi kagaku kenkyūjo) in Okazaki . That year he became the first Japanese president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). From 2000 to 2007 he was President of the Academy of Sciences .

Nagakura studied the electrical behavior of molecules. In 1970 he received the Asahi Prize for his work "Research on the electron theory of molecular compounds" (分子 化合物 の 電子 論 研究, Bunshi kakōbutsu denshi-ron kenkyū) . In 1983 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1985 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and in 1990 was awarded the Order of Culture .

Remarks

1. ↑ Without exception, the professorship at Tōkyō University ends with reaching the age of 60
2. ↑ Meiyo Kyōju (名誉 教授) is occasionally rendered in German as "Professor emeritus". But in contrast to this title, which is automatically used on retirement, this is a special award only occasionally granted in Japan.

Web links

• Biographies Nagakura Saburō in the Kotobank, Japanese
• Member entry of Saburo Nagakura at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nagakura is the family name, Saburō the first name.