DATE2025.11.03 #Awards & Prizes

Professor Emeritus Mitsuhiko Shionoya has been awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in the autumn of 2025.

Professor Emeritus Mitsuhiko Shionoyahttps://www8.cao.go.jp/shokun/hatsurei/r07aki/meibo_hosho/hosho-12chiba.pdf#page=1

Emeritus Professor Mitsuhiko Shionoya was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in the fall of 2025. Professor Emeritus Shionoya retired from the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science in 2024, and is currently a Professor at the Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science.

Professor Emeritus Shionoya has devoted many years to education and research in coordination chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry. His research is based on the chemistry of supramolecular metal complexes, and he has led the world in the field of materials chemistry by skillfully controlling the arrangement and dynamic structure of molecules and ions, and by creating diverse spatial functions.

Professor Emeritus Shionoya has created a wide range of new materials. In particular, he was the first in the world to develop metal complex-type artificial DNA, and has also succeeded in developing catalytically active DNA catalysts and Logic Gate systems. In addition, he succeeded in constructing porous supramolecular crystals with both molecular recognition and reaction abilities and showed a new direction in the chemistry of nanoscale space. His success in "asymmetric induction of metal centers" and "stabilization of absolute configuration" of substitution-active metal complexes for the first time in the world was a major breakthrough in the chemistry of asymmetric metals.

For these outstanding research achievements, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including Awards for Science and Technology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2016),  The JSCC Award (2018), the Chemical Society of Japan Award (2020), the International Izatt-Christensen Award (2022), and The Award of Japan Society of Nucleic Acids Chemistry (2023). 

We would like to extend our sincere congratulations to Professor Emeritus Shionoya on receiving this award and wish him continued good health and success in his future endeavors.

Medal with Purple Ribbon in Autumn 2025

(Written by: Professor Nobuhiro Yanai, Graduate School of Science, Faculty of Science)