death_date image_size nationality field birth_date image article_title name
11 july 1930 200px japan chemistry 21 february 1865 masataka ogawa.jpg masataka ogawa
 masataka ogawa
masataka ogawa

after graduating from the university of tokyo , he studied under william ramsay in london , where he worked on the analysis of the rare mineral thorianite .
he extracted and isolated a small amount of an apparently unknown substance from the mineral , which he announced as the discovery of element 43 , naming the newly discovered element `` nipponium '' .
he published his results in 1909 and a notice was also published in the journal of the american chemical society .
for this work , he was awarded a doctorate and the highest prize of the tokyo chemical society .
however , no other researchers were able to replicate his discovery , and the announcement was forgotten .
recent research has indicated that whilst he did not identify element 43 -lrb- finally isolated in 1937 by an italian group -rrb- , he had apparently isolated element 75 , rhenium , which would not otherwise be successfully identified until 1925 .
ogawa served as president of tohoku university between 1919 and 1928 .
