Business News

Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi Appointed Teijin Group Distinguished Fellow

Friday 14. January 2011 - Teijin Limited announced that the first person to hold its newly established post of Teijin Group Distinguished Fellow is Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi, the 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry and a Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University in the United States, as well as a Teijin alumnus.

The Teijin Group Distinguished Fellowship program enables noted scientists to advise the Teijin Group on its R&D and technological development programs from a long-term perspective, particularly in the field of organic synthesis. Teijin also is considering sponsorship of special lectures at Purdue University.
Shigeo Ohyagi, president of Teijin Limited, said “Dr. Negishi was part of the fifth group of students in technical fields to receive the Teijin Kumura Scholarship, which our company launched in 1953. He participated in research at our laboratories in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture and Hino, Tokyo. We are very honored that he has accepted the post of Teijin Group Distinguished Fellow, which has great significance for us. I believe there are many fields in which the Teijin Group will benefit from Dr. Negishi’s esteemed advice.”
About Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi
Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi was born in 1935 and joined Teijin after graduating from the Department of Applied Chemistry in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1958. After working at a Teijin laboratory in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Dr. Negishi took a leave of absence to study as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. in 1963. Dr. Negishi returned to Teijin in 1963 and worked at the Teijin Central Research Laboratories in Hino, Tokyo, and then in 1966 he took another leave of absence to become a Postdoctoral Associate at Purdue University under the direction of Professor Herbert C. Brown, recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Negishi was appointed to the position of Purdue University Assistant in 1968, and then left Teijin in 1969. Dr. Negishi was appointed full professor at Purdue University in 1979 and then a Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in 1999. In November 2010, he was presented with Japan’s Order of Culture. On December 10, 2010, Dr. Negishi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in palladium catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis.