Professor Yoshinori Asakawa

Professor Kuan-Han Lee, Dean of College of Pharmacy and Science and I were appointed to endorse Memorandum of Understanding with Tokushima Bunri University on behalf of the President and Board Chair of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.

While we visited Tokushima campus, we happened to meet with top researcher Professor Yoshinori Asakawa, who was bringing his favorite lichen in his hand. For the first time we met together, I could tell that he was so engrossed in his research because of the way and his eyes he talked to me at that time. And if possible, I would really like to have a longer stay to talk with this respectful, senior, and lovely scholar in the field of lichen research.

Later on, we did get another opportunity to visit and meet him at Professor Yoshiyasu Fukuyama's office, where we took a group photo, including Professor Kojun Setsu as well. Since Dean KH Lee has similar research to Professor Asakawa's, both of them appeared to have a nice talk. In the meantime, I tried to grasp the very precious moments when Professor Asakawa talked to Dean Lee by taking photos and filming. In the end, I, like a fan, asked Professor Asakawa for a photo together. I promised him that I will write a blog article with him as the man of this special column.

To know more about Professor Asakawa, in the following is his profile:

1941 born at Tokushima, Japan

1960 Biology student at Tokushima Bunri University (TBU)

1969 Research Assistant at Hiroshima University (HU)

1972 Ph.D. in Organic chemistry at HU (MS also earned at HU)

1976 Associate Professor at TBU
1981 Professor at TBU

1983 Awarded the 1st Hedwig medal

1986-1988; 2000-2003 Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, TBU

1986 Director, Institute of Pharmacology, TBU

1997 Awarded the Pergamon Phytochemistry Prize and Certificate

1997 Awarded the Tokushima Newspaper Prize

2004 Awarded the ISEO prize

2007 President of Phytochemical Society of Asia

His academic achievements feature as follows:

- Coeditor of Phytomedicine;

- Serving in the editorial boards of Phytochemistry, Phytochemistry Letters, Planta Medica, Fitoterapia, Flavor and Fragrance Journal, Natural Product Communication, Natural Product Research, Spectroscopy, Arkivoc, Current Chemical Biology, Malaysian Journal of Sciences;

- Publishing more than 600 original journal papers, 20 reviews, 27 books and monograph;

- Advising more than 37 postdoctoral researchers of different countries