Yoshito Kishi

was a Japanese chemist who was the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. He was known for his contributions to the sciences of organic synthesis and total synthesis.

Early life and education Kishi was born in Nagoya, Japan and attended Nagoya University, where he obtained both his BS and PhD degrees. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University where he worked with Robert Burns Woodward.

Kishi's research focused on the total synthesis of complex natural products. The accomplishments of his research group include the total syntheses of palytoxin, mycolactones, halichondrins, saxitoxin, tetrodotoxin, geldanamycin, batrachotoxin and many others. Kishi also contributed to the development of new chemical reactions including the Nozaki–Hiyama–Kishi reaction. Kishi's total synthesis of halichondrin B was pivotal for the discovery and development of the anticancer drug eribulin, a fully synthetic, pharmaceutically optimized macrocyclic ketone analog of halichondrin B.

Recognition 1999 Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy 2001 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry & BioMedicinal Chemistry 2001 Ernest Guenther Award 2001 Person of Cultural Merit 2013 Order of the Sacred Treasure 2018 Ryoji Noyori Prize