http://www.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/engineering/2010 / No.384

えんじにあEmeritus Professor Akira Suzuki
Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry
Special Commemorative Issue
Cover picture : Commemorative ceremony for the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry（October 7, 2010, School of Engineering, Hokkaido University）

of Engineering,
Hokkaido University Faculty
Graduate School of Engineering
http://www.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/faculty/

Revolutionary research inorganic synthesis earns Hokkaido
its ﬁrst Nobel Prize
EEmeritus
it Professor
P fAkiAkira SSuzuki
ki off H
Hokkaido
kk id University
U iit （formerly（fl a professor
fatt theth School
S h l off Engineering）
E ii
was awarded the2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his innovative research in cross-coupling chemical reactions for the synthesis of organiccompounds. Cross-coupling has applications in a wide range of ﬁelds（e.g., medicine, agricultural chemicals, liquid crystals used inIT equipment, and organic EL as a new generation of luminescent materials）,and represents a major contribution to the development and commercial manufacture of products commonly seen in today s world.
Akira Suzuki ‒ career history1930：Born in Mukawa Village（now Mukawa Town）, Hokkaido.
1959：Became an instructor at the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido
University.
1960：Completed a PhD course at the Department of Chemistry,
Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University.
1961：Became an associate professor at the Department of Chemical
Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido
University.
1963：Became a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University（until1965）.
1973：Became a professor at the Department of Applied Chemistry,
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University.
1988：Appointed to the position of invited professor at the Universityof Wales, UK.
1994：Retired from oﬃce and became Emeritus Professor at Hokkaido
University before taking up positions as a professor at Okayama
University of Science, a professor at Kurashiki University of
Science and the Arts, an invited professor at Purdue University（USA）, an invited professor at National Taiwan University, andEmeritus Professor at Academia Sinica.
2006：Became Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate Schoolof Engineering, Hokkaido University.
〔Major Awards〕
Chemical Society of Japan Award（ 89）
Synthetic Organic Chemistry Japan
Special Award（ 04）Japan Academy Prize（ 04）
Order of the Sacred Treasure（ 05）Paul Karrer Gold Medal（ 09）
Hokkaido Shimbun Cultural Award（ 09）Order of Culture（ 10）▶English publication of his achievements（Hokkaido University Press, 2004）▲Award press conference（October 6, 2010, Hokkaido University Administration Bureau）▲Nobel Prize in Chemistry commemorative ceremony（October 7, School of Engineering, Hokkaido University）
Faculty members and students oﬀer congratulations▲Oﬃcial press coverage by the Nobel Foundation（October 25, School of Engineering, Hokkaido University）▲Banner at the School of Engineering entrance│Congratulatory Message│Professor Naoshi Baba, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering▲Professor Akira Suzuki with the Dean of the Faculty ofEngineering（left）
after the commemorative ceremony
for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry（October 7）

Many congratulations to Professor Suzuki on being awarded both theNobel Prize in Chemistry and the Order of Culture. On behalf of theSchool of Engineering, the Graduate School of Engineering, the Facultyof Engineering, and the School of Engineering Alumni Association, I
would like to express my warmest compliments.
These awards represent the absolute pinnacle of accomplishment for theSchool of Engineering since its establishment in 1924, and are a sourceof great pride for everybody involved with the school.
Professor Suzuki rose from the position of instructor at the Departmentof Chemistry, Faculty of Science to become an associate professor at thenewly established （April 1960） Department of Chemical ProcessEngineering, Faculty of Engineering in October 1961. From there, hebecame a professor at the Department of Applied Chemistry in April
1973, and went on making eﬀorts to the School of Engineering with over
32 years of valuable service in both research and education until March
1994. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in relation to a paperon Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling published in 1979, over a 14-year period

after Professor Suzuki returned from a spell of just under 2 years atPurdue University.
I believe it is highly signiﬁcant that the research leading to the award of
the Nobel Prize was carried out at the School of Engineering.
This provides great encouragement to all students and staﬀ working
both in education and research at the Faculty of Engineering, the Schoolof Engineering, the Graduate School of Engineering, and the Graduate
School of Chemical Science and Engineering.
In 2006, Professor Suzuki was given the ad vitam title of Specially
Appointed Professor by the Graduate School of Engineering（now theFaculty of Engineering）in recognition of his achievements in winningthe 2004 Japan Academy Prize and raising academic standards as well
as for his signiﬁcant contribution to the progress of academic researchand expectations for research development.
The School of Engineering, the Graduate School of Engineering, and theFaculty of Engineering look forward to Professor Suzuki s continued
leadership in the years to come.

Wisdom developed in Hokkaido:
The eﬀects of Suzuki Coupling on peoplesʼ lives

Breakthrough after three years ofstruggling
Gaining worldwide attention bydeveloping the ultimate practicality‒ First, how did you react to the good news of being
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
Miyaura : I was overcome by a sense of both elation
and relief. In the 30 years since the 1979 announcementof Suzuki Coupling, how greatly it has changed theworld! In Europe and the United States, the Suzuki
Coupling achievement was called

the last great

accomplishment of the 20th century, and the award ofan accolade as distinguished as the Nobel Prize inChemistry brought it worldwide recognition. At thepress conference, Professor Suzuki s smiling face, aswell as my own sentiments as somebody involved in theresearch, told me that we both felt a great weight had
been lifted from our shoulders.
■The birth of the Suzuki Coupling reaction
Reported in 1979, the ﬁrst case involved diene synthesis
employing vinyl-type boronic acid.

Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling ‒ a groundbreaking
cross-coupling reaction‒ When did you ﬁrst meet Professor Suzuki?

We asked Professor Miyaura, who engaged in

Miyaura : When I was in my third year at the School ofaround-the-clock research with Professor Suzuki,

Engineering, Hokkaido University, I attended a lecture

how he felt about the award of the prize andclear explanations of organic chemistry from its theoretical

about Professor Suzuki s character.

on to his laboratory. At that time, Professor Suzuki was an

given by Professor Suzuki. I was drawn to his careful andconcepts. I began paying visits to his oﬃce, and then went
authority on research into organic boron compounds, andhad just returned from working with Professor Herbert
Brown at Purdue University. We pursued further researchon the synthesis and utilization of organic boron
compounds along with some other students.

Norio Miyaura
Specially Appointed Professor
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Professor Miyaura graduated from the Department of Synthetic ChemicalEngineering, Hokkaido University in 1969, and completed a postgraduate
degree at the same university in 1971. He subsequently became an instructorin the same department and continued his research under Professor Suzuki
before himself being promoted to the position of professor upon Professor
Suzuki s retirement in 1994. Professor Miyaura retired in 2010. His work has
been recognized with the Chemical Society of Japan Award（ 08）and theScience and Technology Prize （ 10）. He was born in Iwamizawa City,
Hokkaido.

▲Lecturing at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,
Hokkaido University（1979）‒ Many of the things around us are made of organic
compounds, and the technology to realize the■Leaﬂets on
Suzuki Coupling reagentsAs Suzuki Coupling is used in a wide
range of industrial applications andresearch projects, the necessary
reagents are in high demand. As aresult, a variety of them are sold bya large number of companies, andleaﬂets promoting them are also
widely circulated.

coupling of diﬀerent organic molecules is applied in aUnited States. Eventually, it came to be highly

Professor Suzuki was prepared for these times, which

wide range of ﬁelds. What are the characteristics ofevaluated by various academic societies related torepresent the true nature of an unremitting life ofSuzuki Coupling, which makes today s world so richsynthetic organic chemistry and catalytic chemistry.

research. He also joined in with students all-nightand varied?

Both the pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical

parties. Professor Suzuki likes a drink, and students

ﬁelds

theirsitting near him would quickly tire of being kept their

Miyaura : First of all, the characteristic of Suzuki

manufacturing methods for a range of products,

glass constantly topped up with sake served by him

Coupling is the use of non-metallic elements in theincluding the hypertension drugs made by Merck &[laughs]. He would always ﬁnd reasons ‒ like the cherry

form of boron compounds for cross-coupling. InCo., Inc. in America, which outputs a ton of theseblossoms blooming or alumni visiting ‒ to have Genghis

past research on cross-coupling, metallic elements

drugs each year, and the vegetable bactericidal

Khan barbecue parties, which helped us to relax.

such as magnesium were involved in the reactant

agents manufactured by BASF in Germany. The

compounds, which are unstable even in air, andmanufacture of the liquid crystals so commonly used

‒ Professor Suzuki s research laboratory was quite

there were lots of factors that created a risk ofin daily life is also supported by Suzuki Coupling. In

uninhibited, wasn t it?

toxic by-products. However, using organoboronic

addition, the reaction facilitates the development ofacids containing the non-metallic element boronorganic EL materials ‒ a luminescent element

Miyaura : Yes, and there s one more thing worthy of

makes the compounds stable in air and water,

currently drawing attention as a next-generation

special mention ‒ Professor Suzuki s rich and varied

innocuous, and easy to handle. When considering

technology.

international outlook. In the laboratory, we often had

nowutilize

Suzuki

Coupling

inpractical application, user-friendliness is very
important.
■Coupling reaction of aromatic boronic acidvisitors from abroad, including students of Professor

Cultivation of mind and body on agreen campus : an ideal environment
for original research

Brown,

which

createda

realinterdisciplinary

atmosphere. I often saw Professor Suzuki take controlof the situation while at the same time joking with thevisitors. He has a very natural gentlemanly approachthat could be seen in his mannerisms, like holding the‒ The research ﬁndings presented 30 years ago aredoor open for women. He has an open-minded and frankbeing utilized this century as well as last. Did you

character, and is deﬁnitely capable of building strong

imagine this would be the case at the time?

relationships whether in Japan or abroad.

Miyaura : Professor Tamejiro Hiyama of Kyoto
University, a researcher in the ﬁeld of cross-coupling‒ The stability of organoboronic acids has become areactions, once said to me, Suzuki Coupling is likenew obstacle, hasn t it?

a wine matured in a northern land. I remember iteven today. It is diﬃcult to cultivate such long-sustained

Miyaura : On one hand, organoboronic acids are stable andresearch in a short period of time in a rushedeasy to handle. On the other hand, they are chemicallyenvironment. I am convinced that we were able toinert, making synthesis reactions diﬃcult. So, what can beachieve this maturing thanks to Hokkaido University,

done to bring about a reaction? The answer lies in thewhere time seems to pass more slowly.

second characteristic of Suzuki Coupling ‒ the use of apalladium catalyst in a basic aqueous solution. When this‒ Was Professor Suzuki also adept at taking amethod was developed, the general consensus forbreather from academic life?

▲Professor Suzuki（right）in the Vienna Woods（1985）

remember that we were hesitant about adding water.

Miyaura : During research projects, things sometimes‒ The achievement of receiving the Nobel Prize in

When we encountered this diﬃculty in initiating a reaction,

seem to be going badly for an awfully long time, andChemistry provides hope for Hokkaido researchers,

we were at a loss about how to overcome it for three

our work on Suzuki Coupling was no exception. Boronparticularly those of the future, doesn t it?

years. Everyone thought that we probed in the dark, butcompounds, catalytic agents, solvents and bases, inwhen we took the risk of putting a palladium catalyst in anaddition to diﬀerent combinations thereof and various

Miyaura : I think the perception that the researchaqueous base, it went quite smoothly. This was thefactors such as reaction temperatures, were all intertwined

environment in Hokkaido University was at a disadvantage

breakthrough moment that ﬁnally brought us out of thein a web of trial and error. All we see in the laboratory

due to its distance from the center of Japan has beendarkness. After that, every day was a joy. We went fromis a clear liquid spinning in a transparent ﬂask; we havecompletely dispelled. Nowadays, information can be

not even knowing whether we could create the desired

no idea of what s actually going on inside it. I thinkcommunicated via the Internet, so Hokkaido University s

cross-coupling was to use anhydrous conditions. I

chemical compound to developing a method with a nearremoteness provides a contrast to environments

100% yield. I couldn t wait to go to the laboratory every

characterized by an overabundance of information,day, and was always thinking, What conditions shall wewhere it can be diﬃcult to implement highly creative,

try tomorrow?

original research. It is an environment that allows themind and body to breathe, which encourages good research‒ In 1979, the reaction known as Suzuki Coupling

results as seen with the great achievement recognized

was announced to the world. In this coupling,by the award of the Nobel Prize. Viewed in this light,organoboronic acids react with organohalides in theHokkaido University with its rich green campus provides

presence of a palladium catalyst and a basic solution.

the ideal environment for education and research,allowing students to devote themselves to work that

Miyaura : The buzz surrounding Suzuki Coupling

they believe in. I hope this will give rise to further

started at the Max Planck Institute in Germany (aleading organization in the ﬁeld of boronic acidresearch) and spread throughout Europe and to thedevelopment from young researchers following in the▲Genghis Khan barbecue party of the Laboratory of Synthetic OrganicChemistry, Department of Synthetic Chemical Engineering（around 1972）

footsteps of Professor Suzuki, who possesses the frontierspirit that Dr. Clark spoke of at the university s foundation.

S O M E

M E M O R I E S

An excerpt from Hokkoukai-shi（No. 58, March 1994）

One Saturday in 1962, I visited Maruzen
Sapporo bookstore and found a chemistry
textbook with a red and black binding thatdidn t look like any other academic publication. It was Hydroboration by Professor H. C.
Brown（winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize inChemistry）. Out of idle curiosity, I picked it
up and started reading. It was written in theprofessor's own unique style of expression,and it seemed interesting so I bought it andheaded home. I remember even now that I
started reading it after dinner and couldn't
stop. It wasn't a very thick book, but it is oneof the few academic books that have kept me
up all night reading. At that time, I had justmoved from the Faculty of Science to theFaculty of Engineering, so I was at a newworkplace thinking about how I wanted tostart research in a new ﬁeld. Maybe thisbook was an inspiration for me.

▶Hydroboration
A book about the synthesis
and reaction of organoboronic
compounds written by Professor
H. C. Brown of Purdue University,
who laid the foundations fororganoboronic chemistry andwas awarded the 1979 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry▲With Professor Brown and his wife in Red Square,
Moscow（1993）■
I learned many things from Professor
Brown, including aspects of research philosophy, but something I remember vividly even
now are his words, Research the kind ofthing that could appear in a school textbook.
Although easier said than done, this has
become the personal credo by which I work.

■
I think serendipity is something that any
researcher can encounter. However, whether
or not such opportunities can be seized maysolely depend on the nature of the modesty
and honesty in that researcher's heart aswell as the kind of attentiveness that doesn'tallow even a ray of light to be missed, aburning passion for research, and in addition
to all these, good fortune. However, I can say
one thing with conviction: If you never try, it
will never happen.

■… However, we received a report fromProfessor Brown s Laboratory saying that
our method had been retested but there wasno reaction. I remember a sentence from a
letter that Professor Brown sent me:“Chemistry should be international, why do wehave such a big difference between two places,Sapporo, Japan and West Lafayette, USA?”▲Working at Professor H. C. Brown s laboratory,Purdue University（1964）

As Professor Brown s laboratory and ours
were achieving inconsistent results, we
examined the details and found something
unexpected: a small amount of oxygen
impurity in the nitrogen gas used in oursystem was accelerating the reaction.

▲Leaving Tokyo Haneda Airport for the US（1963）

Hokkaido University's Sustainability Weeks 2010, Opening Ceremony
At the congratulatory party for Nobel Prize winner Emeritus Professor Akira Suzuki（October 25）

This is the ﬁrst time I ve attended an event dedicated to building a sustainable society continued by
Hokkaido University. Creating a society that has stability ‒ in other words, going forth as a society that
does not destroy the environment ‒ is an urgent issue for everybody today, followed by that of ourchildren and our grandchildren.
Even in my research ﬁeld of chemistry, this issue has recently attracted much attention. The conceptof eco-chemistry ‒ or carrying out the work of chemistry without polluting the environment ‒ is catching on, and research is actually starting to head in the same direction. In reality, achieving this goal may
be very diﬃcult, but I still think we should raise ourselves and strive to produce results in the nearfuture. Of course, if this is the case, then I believe that each of us must bear this in mind and makeconstant eﬀorts to address the related issues.
So, as I salute Hokkaido University for planning a well-timed project, I also hope that our society will
evolve to become more sustainable in the future.

C reat ing a new age
Creata g e throughth r oug h applicat
a ppli ca t ion
i ono f theoft he front
fr on t ieri er spirits pi r i t

Faculty of Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering

The cross-coupling reaction developed by Professor Suzuki and his co-workers has been put topractical use in the ﬁelds of medicine, agricultural chemicals, liquid crystals used for IT devices,
organic EL（electroluminescence）as next-generation luminescent materials, and more.
Giving back to society through research ﬁndings is extremely important. We believe that it isthe duty of the Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University to contribute to a better world.

えんじにあRing No. 384
Emeritus Professor Akira Suzuki Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry Special Commemorative Issue◆ December 1, 2010
Published by the Public Relations and Information Oﬃce, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
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