Reiko Kuroda
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Reiko Kuroda | |
|---|---|
| 黒田 玲子 | |
| Born | October 7 1947 Akita, Japan |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
| Awards | Sarahushi Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | King's College London Institute of Cancer Research University of Tokyo |
Reiko Kuroda (黒田 玲子, Kuroda Reiko; born October 7, 1947)[1] is a Japanese chemist who is a professor at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo.[2]
Kuroda was born in Akita but grew up in Miyagi, on the island of Honshu, Japan.[3] She obtained her MSc (1972) and PhD (1975) in Chemistry from the University of Tokyo.[4] Her doctorate focused on determining the stereochemistry of metal complexes.[3]
Career
After her PhD, Kuroda worked at King's College London and the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK before returning to Japan in 1986.[4] In 1992 she became the first woman to be made full professor of natural sciences at the University of Tokyo.[4]
Kuroda's field of research is primarily chirality within both inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry.[5] Part of her research has involved studying chirality in snail shells. Her work identified that the direction of the shell spiral is determined at very early stages of snail development.[6] Her team later used CRISPR genetic editing to show that this process is dependent on a single gene, Lsdia1.[7]
Kuroda has established the Science Interpreter Training Program at the University of Tokyo and was appointed to serve as a governor for the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre in 2006. She has also served as Vice-President for External Relations in the International Science Council.
