Born: 9 February 1945, Fukuoka, Japan

Affiliation at the time of the award: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Prize motivation: "for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy."

Born: 3 June 1924, Uppsala, Sweden

Affiliation at the time of the award: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Prize motivation: "for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system."

Biography

1972 Graduated from Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo
1977 Completed doctoral course at Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
1977 Assistant Professor, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo
1977-1981 Researcher, Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Zurich
1982-1987 Assistant Professor, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo
1987-1998 Director, Molecular Biology Division, Osaka Bioscience Institute
1995-2007 Professor of Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University
2002-2007 Professor, Space-Time Biology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University
2007-2015 Professor of Medical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University
2015- Professor, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University
2018- Chairman, International Human Frontier Science Program Promotion Organization

Award history

Robert Koch Prize, Asahi Prize, Gift Award, Keio Medical Science Prize, Person of Cultural Merit Award, etc.