Greetings from the Selection Committee Chair
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MBLA: Spreading Japan's Rising Stars to the World
Keiji Maruoka, Specially-Appointed Professor, Kyoto University
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From 2024, I will be the Selection Committee Chair of the Chemist Award BCA and Lectureship Award MBLA (BCA/MBLA), succeeding the first Selection Committee Chair (Professor Hisashi Yamamoto). I look forward to your continuous support on this award selection.
Compared to the United States and China, where researchers can become independent at a young age, it is difficult for foreign professors to know who is active among young researchers in Japan, where the small-group system is in place. However, it is true that many young Japanese researchers are conducting original research, even though they are not as visible as their American and Chinese counterparts. The BCA/MBLA by the MSD Life Sciences Foundation put the spotlight on these rising stars in Japan. If they are selected for this MBLA lectureship, they will be able to have the opportunity to give lectures at major universities in the United States and Europe, thereby making them quite visible in the United States and Europe. They will also be able to make lifelong friends through this lectureship. All of the MBLA recipients to date have been excellent young researchers representing Japan, and even after receiving the award, they have been conducting original research worthy of the award.
In parallel with the BCA/MBLA, the MSD Life Science Foundation has been supporting the Otsu Conference since 2010 (Prof. Keiji Maruoka as the Chair of the Conference), from which 16 talented Ph. D. students from all over Japan graduate every year. The fact that MBLA awardees have come out of the Otsu Conference for these two consecutive years, last year and this year, shows how successful the graduates of the Otsu Conference are. I do hope that the synergistic effects of these two projects will continue to nurture many talented young researchers in Japan.
There are several international awards for young researchers in the field of organic chemistry, such as the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the OMCOS Award, and the Thieme Award, but all of them have a strict age limit of 40 years old or younger, which puts young researchers in Japan at a great disadvantage. As a member of the selection committee for these international awards for young researchers, I feel very sad that the achievements of young Japanese researchers are not visible when I see young researchers from the United States and Europe receiving these awards. I hope that in the near future, MBLA awardees will be able to win such international awards. The purpose of this award is to have them work shoulder to shoulder with the visible rising stars of the United States and Europe, and be active around the world. I hope that in the future, Nobel Prize winners will be produced from among these people.
Compared to the United States and China, where researchers can become independent at a young age, it is difficult for foreign professors to know who is active among young researchers in Japan, where the small-group system is in place. However, it is true that many young Japanese researchers are conducting original research, even though they are not as visible as their American and Chinese counterparts. The BCA/MBLA by the MSD Life Sciences Foundation put the spotlight on these rising stars in Japan. If they are selected for this MBLA lectureship, they will be able to have the opportunity to give lectures at major universities in the United States and Europe, thereby making them quite visible in the United States and Europe. They will also be able to make lifelong friends through this lectureship. All of the MBLA recipients to date have been excellent young researchers representing Japan, and even after receiving the award, they have been conducting original research worthy of the award.
In parallel with the BCA/MBLA, the MSD Life Science Foundation has been supporting the Otsu Conference since 2010 (Prof. Keiji Maruoka as the Chair of the Conference), from which 16 talented Ph. D. students from all over Japan graduate every year. The fact that MBLA awardees have come out of the Otsu Conference for these two consecutive years, last year and this year, shows how successful the graduates of the Otsu Conference are. I do hope that the synergistic effects of these two projects will continue to nurture many talented young researchers in Japan.
There are several international awards for young researchers in the field of organic chemistry, such as the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the OMCOS Award, and the Thieme Award, but all of them have a strict age limit of 40 years old or younger, which puts young researchers in Japan at a great disadvantage. As a member of the selection committee for these international awards for young researchers, I feel very sad that the achievements of young Japanese researchers are not visible when I see young researchers from the United States and Europe receiving these awards. I hope that in the near future, MBLA awardees will be able to win such international awards. The purpose of this award is to have them work shoulder to shoulder with the visible rising stars of the United States and Europe, and be active around the world. I hope that in the future, Nobel Prize winners will be produced from among these people.
(October 2024)
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First Selection Committee Chairman
Hisashi Yamamoto, Professor, the University of Chicago
(Affiliation is as of 2004 when this award was established) |
