Professor Jian-Ren Shen of the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology (Faculty of Science) was chosen to receive the 2012 Asahi Prize with high praise given to the achievements of his "Elucidation of Molecular Mechanisms in Water Decomposition / Oxygen Evolution in Photosynthesis."
The Asahi Prize was founded in 1929 by the Asahi Shimbun Foundation. It is awarded to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the development and improvement of Japan's culture and society with outstanding achievements in the fields of science or arts. This is an extremely distinguished prize, and many of its past winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize or have been decorated with the Order of Culture.
Professor Shen has long been studying the structural analysis of photosynthetic protein. In 2011, he used Japan's world-famed SPring-8 (Super Photon ring-8 GeV) synchrotron radiation facility to clarify the reaction mechanism generating oxygen using light energy in photosynthesis. The results of this study sent shock waves throughout the world and achieved the feat of being selected by the international scientific journal Science as the "Breakthrough of the Year 2011."
The Asahi Prize was jointly awarded with Professor Nobuo Kamiya of the OCU Advanced Research Institute for Natural Science and Technology of Osaka City University, who was the joint researcher on this project. The prize-giving ceremony will be held on January 31 at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya, Tokyo.
The Asahi Prize:
Dr. Jian-Ren Shen Wins Asahi Prize
January 04, 2013