JAPAN PRIZE NEWSTHE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
FOUNDATION OF JAPAN (JSTF)

No . 20JUNE 1998

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Three Japanese and Belgian Scientists
Awarded 1998 Japan Prize
Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress Attend the Presentation Ceremony

The presentation ceremony for the 14th Japan Prize took place onApril 28, 1998, at the National Theater in Tokyo. This year's threelaureates were Dr. Leo Esaki (73), Former President of Tsukuba
University, Japan, in the category of "Generation and Design of New
Materials for Novel Functions"; and Prof. Dr. Jozef S. Schell (62),
Director of the Department of Genetic Principles of Plant Breeding,
Max-Planck-Institute fuer Zuechtungsforschung, Germany, and Dr.

Dr. Leo Esaki

Marc C. E. Van Montagu (64), Professor of Faculty of Science,
Laboratory of Genetics, Un iversity of Ghent, Belgium, the joint winners
in the category of "Biotechnology in Agricultural Sciences."
The Japan Prize is presented annually by The Science andTechnology Foundation of Japan (JSTF) to scientists and researchers
who have made a substantial contribution to the advancement of scienceand technology as well as to the peace and prosperity of humankind.

Dr. Jozef S. Schell

Dr. Marc C. E. Van Montagu

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Presentation Ceremony
Address byHis Majestry
the Emperor
I would li ke to extend my sincere
congratulations to Dr. Esaki, Prof. Dr. Schelland Dr. Van Montagu, the winners of the1998 Japan Pri ze. Dr. Esaki was awarded theprize in the category of "Generation and Design of New Materials Creating
Novel Functions". Prof. Dr. Schell and Dr. Van Montagu were awarded theprize in the category of "Biothechnology in Agricultural Sciences".
Dr. Esaki created semiconductor "superlattice", a man-made single
crystal. This material has proven to have a number of peculiar properties aspredicted by Dr. Esaki and has brought fo1th wide-ranging developments inthe field of appl ied technologies.
Prof. Dr. Schell and Dr. Van Montagu developed a method for thetransfer of a foreign gene into a plant genome by means of soil bacteria,
Agrobacterium, and succeeded in trial production of useful tran sgenicplants. It is ex pected that this technology wi ll make major contributions to
the future development of agriculture.
I would like to take thi s oppo,tun ity to express my profound admiration
and respect to these three di sting ui shed scholars for their outstanding
ach ievements.
In recent years, great strides have been made in sc ience and technology
and humanity could receive immeasurable benefits from these advances,through broad applications, as de monstrated by the achievements of thethree scientists to whom thi s year's prize in being awarded. I would li ke toexpress my sincere hope that new science and technology will fu1therdevelop, and always in such a way as to contribute to the welfare ofhumanity.

The laureates on the stage of the ceremony
Their Majesti es the Emperor and Empress attended the presentation
ceremony as did some 900 prominent guests, including H. E. Mr. Juro
Saito, Preside nt of the Hou se of Counci ll ors, H. E. Mr. Shi gern
Yamaguchi , C hief Justice of the Supreme Court and H. E. Mr. Nobutaka
Machimura, Mini ster of Education; numerous ambassadors to Japan ;e min ent scho lars and research e rs; representati ves from the pol icy,financial and indu strial sectors of government ; and the medi a.
The ceremony began with a rendition of Overture Japan performed by
the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Prof. Jiro Kondo , Foundation Chairman ,cleliverecl the open ing address, and Dr. Hiroshi !nose, C hairman of the1998 Japan Pri ze Selection Committee, introduced the three winners andspoke about their achi evements. After the chairmen from the two selection
panels o utlined the reasons for their choices, Foundatio n Preside nt Dr.
Masami Ito presented the three winners with a certificate of me rit, acommemorative medal and a cash award of 50 million yen fo r eachcategory.
Highli ghts of each of the laureates' acceptance speech:
Dr. Leo Esaki: "Wherever we li ve, we rely heavi ly on scie nce andtechnology. In industrial countries, in particul ar, scientific and tec hnicalknow ledge indi sputabl y make a great contributi o n to our eco nomic
development, to the improveme nt of the env ironment, to the protection of
our hea lth and medical care, to the preve ntion and mitigation of naturaland man-made disasters and to improveme nts in the quality of life. Ibeli eve that the annuall y-awarded Japan Pri ze stimulates people aroundthe world to take a greater interest in science and technology and makes us
reali ze how important these fie lds are to the future of mankind ."Prof. Dr. Jozef S. Schell: "With an ever increas ing world popul ation ,limited cultivatable land and a pressing need for e nvironmental protection
and preservation , one mu st encourage progress in plant biotechnology.
Modern plant breeding, combining advances fro m molecular biology andtradition al knowledge and tec hniques, is o ne of the few, and mosteffective, ways to maintain and improve agricu ltural producti vity without
destroying the e nvironme nt. "Dr. Marc C . E. Van Montagu: "Upon the acceptance of the Japan Prize,
my thoughts go out to all those who are concerned with the preservationof our environment, especiall y in li ght of the da mage caused to our pl anet
particularl y duri ng the second half of thi s century. May they understandand appreciate the contribu tions of our researc h."Banquet c;;;;=-------;;==-==-===Following the presentation ceremony, a banquet was held at Hotel
Okura in Tokyo on the evening of April 28, in the presence of Their
Majesties the Emperor and Empress with approximately 250 distingui shed
guests in attendance.
An opening address by Foundation President Dr. Masami Ito preceded thedinner, after which His Majesty the Emperor honored the three winners with acongratulato1y toast. Ftuthertoasts were proposed by H. E.
Mr. Souichiro Ito, Speaker ofthe House of Representatives,and H.E. Mr. ShigernYamaguchi, Chief Justice ofthe Supreme Comt. Final
toasts were proposed by H. E.
Mr. Nobutaka Machimura,
Mini ster of Education andH.E. Saclakazu Tanigaki,
Minister of State for Scienceand Technology.
..
Dr. Masami Ito makes the open ing address
T he banquet continued~--A view of the Banquet
with a congratulatory message from H.E. Mr. Rachael Ahmed Saleh Farah,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Djibouti ,the foreign representati ve of the diplomatic corps in Japan. Thereafter, H.E.
Mr. Gu staa f Dierckx, Ambassador Extraord inary and Plenipotentiary of theKingdom of Belgium, fo ll owed wi th his own congratulatory speech.
The end of the evening was marked by a choir pe1formance by C hiba
University and Utsunomi ya Uni versity. To close the banquet, Dr. Esaki,
Prof. Dr. Schell and Dr. Van Montagu cleli verecl speeches of thanks.

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Memorable Album of the Laureates
Dr. Esaki in thesecond grade ofTokyo University.

Dr. Esaki receives the Nobel
Prize in physics from His RoyalHighness King Carl Gustaf XVIof Sweden.

/At the age of five,Dr. Esaki may havedreamed of being adancer.

Dr. Esaki with Dr. Shockley, winner of theNobel Prize in physics, and his wife at aninternational conference in Brussels.

Dr. Esaki takes a walk withstudents of Tsukuba University.

Prof. Dr. Schell, an avid sailor,
has crossed the Atlantic
Ocean and sailed through theMediterranean to Turkey.

Prof. Dr. Schell at the age ofseven with his parents andolder brother, Rudy.

~/

Prof. Dr. Schell with hissons, Peter and Bart, at
the awards ceremony for
the Wolf Prize in 1990.

.

The President of Germany, Richard Von
Weizsacker and His Majesty, King_........ Boudouin of Belgium visit Prof. Dr. Schell.,......-at the Max Planck Institute in 1988. HerMajesty, Queen Fabiola is at left.

As a high school student in
1949, Dr. Van Montagu had
already decided to study thechemistry of living things.

A Friday football game in 1981 :Prof. Dr. Schell's Dept. vs. Prof.
Heinz Saedler's Dept.

Dr. Van Montagu visits
Hokkaido in 1989.

Getting married in
October 1957.
Dr. Van Montagu isawarded the Dr. Honoris
Causas at the Free
University of Brussels in1997.
Working on the roof of his
country house in Oosterzele.

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Press conference at the Japan Press Center (April 23)

Holiday in Kyoto (April 30)

Japan Prize Week
Welcome reception (April 24)

Academic discussion (April 29)

The week of April 22 to May 1, 1998,
was designated Japan Prize Week with many
events such as visits to the Prime Ministerand the Japan Academy, commemorative
lectures, and of course, the culminatingAward's Ceremony and Banquet.

Commemorative lectures (April 24)

Reception party hosted by the Belgium Embassy(April 27)

Courtesy call on the Prime Minister (April 27)

Selection of Laureates Begins
for the 1999 (15th) Japan Prize
The categories for the 1999 (15th) Japan Prizeare "Information Technologies" and "MolecularRecognition and Dynamics in Bioscience."
Candidates have been recommended throughnumerous letters of nomination received by thefoundation from around the world. The 1999
(15th) Japan Prize Selection Committee will beestablished in the Foundation and the results will
be announced in December. The presentation
ceremony will take place in April 2000.

Visit to the Japan Academy (April 27)

InformationTechnologies

Molecular Recognition andDynamics in Bioscience

In accordance with the progress ofdigitalization, information technologies areincreasingly playing an important role inmodern society.
The prize for 1999 will be awarded foroutstanding achievements in encodi ng andencryption techno logies , reliability andsecurity technologies, and related digital
information technologies which are basesof efficient and secu re information systems.

Recent progress of bioscience owes
much to understanding mechanisms ofintermolecular interaction . In addition ,technological developments to visualize (orrecognize) molecular movements andinteractions in living cel ls have also
contributed to obtain deeper insights into thebiological function of each molecule.
The Japan Prize for 1999 will be awarded
for outstanding achievements in elucidationof the basic principle of molecular
recognition as well as technologicaldevelopments to visual ize or recognize
dynamics of biological molecules.