Ryōji Noyori was born in Kobe, Japan. Early in his school days Ryoji was interested in physics. His interest was kindled by the famous physicist Hideki Yukawa, a close friend of his father. Later, he became fascinated with chemistry, after hearing a presentation on nylon at an industrial exposition. He saw the power of chemistry as being the ability to "produce high value from almost nothing". He was a student at the School of Engineering of the Kyoto University, where he graduated in 1961. He subsequently obtained a Master's degree in Industrial Chemistry from the Graduate School of Engineering of the Kyoto University. Between 1963 and 1967, he was a Research Associate at the School of Engineering of the Kyoto University, and an instructor in the research group of Hitoshi Nozaki. Noyori obtained a Doctor of Engineering degree from the Kyoto University in 1967. He became an associate professor at the same university in 1968. After postdoctoral work with Elias J. Corey at Harvard he returned to Nagoya, becoming a full professor in 1972. He is still based at Nagoya, and served as president of RIKEN, a multi-site national research initiative with an annual budget of $800 million, from 2003 to 2015.
Research
Noyori believes strongly in the power of catalysis and of green chemistry; in a 2005 article he argued for the pursuit of "practical elegance in synthesis". In this article he stated that "our ability to devise straightforward and practical chemical syntheses is indispensable to the survival of our species." Elsewhere he has said that "Research is for nations and mankind, not for researchers themselves." He encourages scientists to be politically active: "Researchers must spur public opinions and government policies toward constructing the sustainable society in the 21st century." Noyori is currently a chairman of the Education Rebuilding Council, which was set up by Japan's PM Shinzō Abe after he came to power in 2006. Noyori is most famous for asymmetric hydrogenation using as catalysts complexes of rhodium and ruthenium, particularly those based on the BINAPligand. Asymmetric hydrogenation of an alkene in the presence of Ru2 is used for the commercial production of enantiomerically pure naproxen, used as an anti-inflammatory drug. The antibacterial agentlevofloxacin is manufactured by asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones in the presence of a Ru BINAP halide complex. He has also worked on other asymmetric processes. Each year 3000tonnes of menthol are produced by Takasago International Corporation, using Noyori's method for isomerisation of allylic amines. More recently with Philip G. Jessop, Noyori has developed an industrial process for the manufacture of N,N-dimethylformamide from hydrogen, dimethylamine and supercritical carbon dioxide in the presence of 24 as catalyst.
