On 1 December, the winners of the 2009 Nature Awards for Creative Mentoring – the 5th since the competition’s inception in 2005 – were announced at the British Embassy in Tokyo. For the 2009 awards, nominations were invited from Japan – the first time that researchers from an Asian country have been honoured. Two awards were made, one for lifetime achievement and the other for mid-career achievement.
The Lifetime Achievement award went to Prof. Fumio Oosawa (above, left), while the mid-career award was given to Dr Hiroaki Kitano (right). Comments from the nominators can be seen here. The presentation ceremony was held in the Ambassador’s Residence at the British Embassy in Tokyo on and was hosted by Mr David Warren, the British Ambassador to Japan. Dr Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature, presented the awards. The prizewinners were selected by a panel of six eminent Japanese scientists chaired by Prof Akiyoshi Wada and including Prof Ryoji Noyori, the 2001 Nobel laureate for chemistry.
For more details of the awards, the judges, the nominations and more, visit the NPG Asia-Pacific website (in English), or NPG’s Japanese-language site. The event was also covered in the local press.