Ryōji Noyori (1938)

Japanese chemist born in Kobe, professor at Nagoya University and president of the RIKEN research institute from 2003 to 2015. In 1966 he described the first asymmetric catalytic reaction with a chiral metal complex, a copper-catalysed cyclopropanation, and in 1980 he prepared the BINAP ligand.

Ruthenium and rhodium complexes of BINAP hydrogenate alkenes and ketones with great selectivity and are used in the industrial manufacture of (−)-menthol, antibiotics and other drugs. He received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with William Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless.

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