YASUTOMI NISHIZUKA
Dr. Yasutomi Nishizuka found protein kinasse C (PKC) and made his own special contribution to our understanding of molecular mechanism of signal transduction across the cell membrane. He was born at Ashiya-city in Japan in 1932, and graduated from Kyoto University, Faculty of Medicine in 1957. After obtaining both M.D. and Ph.D. degree from Kyoto University, he spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Prof. Fritz Lipmann's laboratory at the Rockefeller University. In 1969, he took the position of full professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry, Kobe University School of Medicine, and has been interested in the research field of signal transduction. Today, he serves as the president of the Kobe University, and is keeping laboratories as the team leader of the Biosignal Research Center of Kobe University.
Dr. Nishizuka received numerous awards and prizes, including The Gairdner Foundation International Award (1988), The Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize (1988), The Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1989), The Kyoto Prize (1992), The Wolf Prize in Medicine (1995), The Jimenez Diaz Award (1995), The Schering Prize (1995) and many others. He also serves as foreign members and honorary fellows of various academies, including the National Academy of Sciences (US), the Royal Society (UK), l'Academie des Sciences (France), die Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (Germany), le Real Academia de Ciencias (Spain), the Asiatic Society (India), and the Japan Academy.