Nobel-Winning Japanese Chemist Dies at 85 12 June 2021

Nobel-winning Japanese chemist dies at 85 12 June 2021

tubes," the award citation said.

Heck laid the groundwork for bonding carbon atoms by using a catalyzer to promote the process in the 1960s.

Negishi fine-tuned it in 1977 and it was taken a step further by Suzuki, who found a practical way to carry out the process.

Negishi likened their work to playing with Lego building blocks.

"We found catalysts and created reactions that allow complex organic compounds to, in effect, Japanese chemist Ei-ichi Negishi (R, with his family) snap together with other compounds to more won the Nobel Prize for his work developing a method to economically and efficiently build desired create complex chemicals. materials," he was quoted as saying in the university statement.

"Legos can be combined to make things of any Japanese chemist Ei-ichi Negishi who won the shape, size and color, and our reactions make this Nobel prize for developing a method for creating a possibility for organic compounds." complex chemicals necessary for manufacturing drugs and electronics has died aged 85, his US According to Purdue, their work is widely used, university said. from fluorescent marking essential for DNA sequencing to agricultural chemicals that protect Negishi died on Sunday in Indianapolis, Purdue crops from fungi to materials for thin LED displays. University said in a statement on Friday, adding his family would lay him to rest in Japan sometime "The world lost a great and gracious man -— one next year. who made a difference in lives as a scientist and a human being," Purdue President Mitch Daniels The Manchuria-born scientist graduated from the said. prestigious University of Tokyo and worked at Japanese chemical giant Teijin before going to the "We're saddened by Dr. Negishi's passing but United States on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to grateful for his world-changing discoveries and the study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in lives he touched and influenced as a Purdue 1979. professor."

Through the trio's work, organic chemistry has developed into "an art form, where scientists produce marvellous chemical creations in their test

1 / 2

APA citation: Nobel-winning Japanese chemist dies at 85 (2021, June 12) retrieved 24 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-06-nobel-winning-japanese-chemist-dies.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

2 / 2