"Scientific research is a never-ending “journey of knowledge”. There is more meaning in experiencing various encounters and making a good journey itself than reaching the destination. And excellent research nurtures talented people and also contributes to the society."
——Ryōji Noyori
Ryōji Noyori, a Japanese chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, visited USTC on May 5th and gave an amazing talk about "Where am I From? Where Are You Going?" . During the talk, he shared his personal journey with the audience. “When I was a little boy, life is really difficult as the lack of food and supplies.” Ryōji Noyori recalled his childhood, “however, my parents felt strongly that a good education was the only thing to be given for me and my brothers. When I was only 11 years old, my father took me to attend lectures given by Japanese Nobel Laureate …”. And at that time, Noyori started his chemistry exploring journey.
Noyori believed that culture plays an important role as well as diligent in science. He spoke highly of the five thousand-year civilization history of China, such as the Four Great Inventions, the herbal medicine. As these great culture heritage paved Youyou Tu’s way to win 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. All these can be stated by a Chinese adage—“ Tian Ren He Yi”.
"Looking back to the 20th century, Chemistry has been charged for the acid rains, DDT and so on. This situation requires us to promote the development of green chemistry", said Noyori. He also quoted from Wayne Clough’s speech that” the pace of change today puts us at risk if we passively wait for what is to come” to emphasize the grim situation. He also encouraged the young generation to cooperate with each other to overcome the difficulties as individual knowledge is inextricably bound with the group’s wisdom.
Ryōji Noyori shared half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations in 2001; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his study in chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions. He also won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in the same year. The Ryoji Noyori Prize started from 2002 is named in his honor to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to research in asymmetric synthetic chemistry defined in its broadest sense.
(HUANG Xingxing, REN Muqing, USTC NEWs Center )
