Akira Suzuki

is a Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate, who first published the Suzuki reaction, the organic reaction of an aryl- or vinyl-boronic acid with an aryl- or vinyl-halide catalyzed by a palladium(0) complex, in 1979.

Early life and education Suzuki was born on September 12, 1930, in Mukawa, Hokkaidō, his father died when he was in high school. He studied chemistry at Hokkaido University (Hokudai) and after receiving his PhD while he worked there as assistant professor. He initially wanted to major in mathematics, as his favorite subject in childhood was arithmetic. It was an encounter with two books that became an opportunity to advance to the path of organic synthesis, one is Textbook of Organic Chemistry written by Louis Fieser of Harvard University, and another is Hydroboration written by Herbert C. Brown of Purdue University. Its organic boronic acids with aryl and vinyl group are stable to water and air, easy to handle, and because the conditions required for use are also relatively mild, even among the several cross-coupling techniques, it is said to be easy to use. Its full mechanism is shown in the image below.

With his retirement from Hokudai in 1994 he took several positions in other universities: 1994–1995 Okayama University of Science and 1995–2002 Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts. In addition, he was an invited professor at Purdue University (2001), Academic Sinica and the National Taiwan University (2002).

In 2010, Suzuki was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry together with Richard F. Heck and Ei-ichi Negishi.

To celebrate International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011), Suzuki was interviewed by the UNESCO Courier magazine, he said： Today some people see chemistry just as a polluting industry, but that is a mistake ... Without it, productivity would drop and we could not enjoy the life we know today. If there is pollution, it is because we are releasing harmful substances. Obviously, we have to adapt treatment and management regimes and work to develop chemical substances and manufacturing processes that respect the environment.

In 2014, a Canadian-Chinese student asked for Suzuki's advice: "how can I become a great chemist like you?", Suzuki answered him: "... above all else, you must learn to see through the appearance to perceive the essence."

Invention without patent Suzuki has not obtained a patent on Suzuki reaction technology because he thinks that the research was supported by government funds, To date, there are more than 6,000 papers and patents related to Suzuki reaction.

Recognition

Peter Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen, Christopher A. Pissarides, Konstantin Novoselov, Andre Geim, Akira Suzuki, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Richard Heck, Nobel Prize Laureates 2010, at a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

The asteroid 87312 Akirasuzuki was named after Professor Suzuki.

1986 – Weissberger-Williams lectureship Award 1987 – Korean Chemical Society Award 1989 – Chemical Society of Japan Award 1995 – DowElanco lectureship Award 2000 – The H. C. Brown Lecture Award 2003 – Japan Academy Prize 2009 – Paul Karrer Gold Medal 2009 – Special Member of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) 2010 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry

2010 – Person of Cultural Merit 2011 – Member of the Japan Academy 2011 – honored on a stamp issued by Republic of the Congo 2016 – Honorary chair professorship, National Cheng Kung University