December 16, 2015
Sigma Xi member Satoshi Ōmura was awarded one-fourth of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is a distinguished emeritus professor at Kitasato University in Japan, the Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University in the U.S., and President Emeritus of Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan. Ōmura was inducted into Sigma Xi in 1972.
He shares half of the prize with William C. Campbell of Drew University in the U.S. for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites. The other half of the prize was awarded to Youyou Tu of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.
To have fun as we waited for the Nobel Prize announcements, Sigma Xi ran its inaugural prediction contest, October Madness, on our new blog, Keyed In. After crowdsourcing nominations, we had four rounds of voting to try to predict the winners of the prizes in chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine. For his participation, Alexis Verger won the raffle prize of a free year of membership in Sigma Xi’s Affiliate Circle. October Madness returns next year so start thinking of your nominations.
To see the results of October Madness, visit our blog, Keyed In. Visit the Nobel Prize Twitter account to see a picture of Ōmura the day he received his prize in Stockholm.