2014 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 77-83
Dr. Kazuo Komagata, Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo, was awarded the Japan Academy Duke of Edinburgh Prize in July 2014, which is awarded once every two years to a Japanese scientist with outstanding achievements in the area of wildlife protection and species preservation by the suggestion of His Royal Highness the Prince Philp since 1988. Prof. Komagata is the fourteenth recipient of the Prize with the title of “Studies on taxonomy of bacteria and establishment and management of culture collections”．
Dr. Komagata has been studying such diverse microorganisms spanning 6 decades from the viewpoint of their taxonomy and actively introducing and developing new techniques and knowledge and promoting the field. His outstanding achievements are especially shown in his studies of Gram-negative bacteria which decompose artificial environment-polluting organic compounds and a group of actinobacteria, formerly called “coryneform” bacteria including those producing amino acids which are of industrial importance. Based on these achievements, he was a recipient of “The Van Niel International Prize” in 1999 and “The Bergey Medal” in 2006.
In addition, Dr. Komagata has contributed to the establishment and management of microbial culture collections which preserve and supply reference materials and have important roles not only in fundamental sciences but also in industrial utilization providing an infrastructure for the microbiology community. For his contribution to international cooperation, he was elected as an executive board member of the World Federation for Culture Collections.
