Center for Self-assembly and Complexity

Prof. Makoto Fujita, CSC advisory board member, honored with 2018 Wolf Prize!!

Prof. Makoto Fujita, advisory board member of the Center for Self-assembly and Complexity and professor at the University of Tokyo, has been awarded the Wolf Prize 2018 in Chemistry, one of the most prestigious international prizes.

The Wolf Foundation awards the Wolf Prize annually to outstanding researchers in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and physics, and rotates annually among architecture, music, painting, and sculpture. Since 1978, 329 laureates have been selected from leading researchers in each field who have also made contributions to humanity and friendly relations between peoples.

Prof. Fujita is a leading scientist in the field of supramolecular chemistry. He is renowned for his exceptional research on conceiving metal-directed assembly principles leading to large highly porous complexes. In particular, Fujita introduced the concept of "metal-guided synthesis" or "metal-directed self-assembly" to supramolecular chemistry, which uses transition metal ions and organic molecules as building blocks that self-assemble into large, stable three-dimensional structures. The 3D structures created by this method form a regular "cage" that can be used as "containers" for other molecules.

Prof. Fujita and the other laureates will receive their prizes from the president of Israel at a ceremony in Jerusalem on May 30, 2018. Prof. Kimoon Kim, director of center for self-assembly and complexity, will participate in the Wolf symposium 2018 to celebrate his award and will give a lecture on “nanostructured materials by covalent self-assembly”.