Assistant Professor Yasuki Minami of the Center for Research and Development Initiatives (Research Laboratory for the Activation of Stable Bonds with Catalysts) received the 2011 Toray Research Design Award from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry. This award recognizes outstanding budding research that prompts progress in novel research in the field of Synthetic Organic Chemistry. This year, 31 people received awards named for various industries, and it is hoped that relations between the academic and industrial worlds will become ever closer.

The award research:
Development of carbon-hydrogen bond catalysts using cationic phosphorus compounds as key ligands.

In the Research Laboratory for the Activation of Stable Bonds with Catalysts, Assistant Professor Minami (Research Representative: Professor Shinichi Fukuzawa, Faculty of Science and Technology), aims to realize the composition process for Zero waste of organic compounds that constitute elements that exist in our bodies and the natural world, and is advancing research development through state-of-the-art technology using metal catalysts.

For those interested in more information, please see the links below

• Link: Center for Research and Development Initiatives (Research Laboratory for the Activation of Stable Bonds with Catalysts)
• Link: Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan