The winners of the 4th Shining Female Researcher Award were decided, and on November 2022, 11, an award ceremony was held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo.Shining Female Researcher's Award (Jun Ashida Award) was awarded to Project Lecturer Toda Yasuka of the Faculty of Agriculture, Meiji University. Kaori Sugihara, a lecturer at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, was selected for the award.
According to the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Specially Appointed Lecturer Toda has been in his current position since 2021 after working as a researcher at the Kikkoman Research Institute and Meiji University's Faculty of Agriculture.Among taste receptors, he has developed a highly sensitive functional evaluation method for umami receptors, and is studying the molecular evolution of umami receptors in birds and primates.In particular, the mechanism by which some birds lost their sweet taste receptor genes and then used umami receptors to detect sweet foods such as nectar, and the process by which primate umami receptors changed their susceptibility during evolution. was highly evaluated in the study of
Tohoku University has established a science angel system to encourage junior and senior high school girls to advance to science courses, actively recruits female faculty members, promotes them to higher positions, and focuses on training female researchers.
Sugihara, a lecturer at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, has been in his current position since 2020 after working as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and as an assistant professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.Not only did he achieve outstanding research results in the field of nanomaterials, mainly lipids that make up cell membranes, but he was also praised for expanding his research fields to include peptides with antibacterial properties and non-woven medical masks in recent years.
