TOKYO, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan announced the names of three laureates for the 2005 (21st) Japan Prize today.
They are Japanese scientists, Dr. Nagao, Makoto, for the "Pioneering Contributions to Natural Language Processing and Intelligent Image Processing" in the prize category of "Information and Media Technology" and Dr. Takeichi, Masatoshi of Japanese and Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti of U.S. for the "Fundamental Contribution in Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Adhesion" in the prize category of "Cell Biology".
The three scientists will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals. There is also a cash award of 50 million yen for each prize category. The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo at the National Theatre on Wednesday 20, April 2005.
Laureates of the 2005 (21st) Japan Prize Category I: Information and Media Technology Dr. Nagao, Makoto (Japan) President, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology Date of Birth: October 4, 1936 (68) Pioneering Contributions to Natural Language Processing and Intelligent Image Processing
Dr. Nagao, Makoto has pioneered researches in the fields of machine translation, natural language processing, and image processing, and has achieved extensive results that have had a significant impact on other researchers in this field. Notably, he developed a fully functional Japanese- to-English / English-to-Japanese translation system, and was the world's first advocate of example-based translation in machine translation. In image processing, he was the first to introduce feedback analysis mechanisms, which had a dramatic impact on many later research activities. He developed the world's first digital library prototype system incorporating natural language processing and image processing technologies, and has contributed to the new digital library era. In addition to being a pioneer, Dr. Nagao has been a leader in this field as well, for example as a founder of the International Association for Machine Translation and The Association for Natural Language Processing.
Category II: Cell Biology Dr. Takeichi, Masatoshi (Japan) Director of RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology Date of Birth: November 27, 1943 (61) Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti (United States of America) Distinguished Professor, The Burnham Institute Date of Birth: February 16, 1940 (64) Fundamental Contribution in Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Adhesion
Cell adhesion is fundamentally important in the construction of tissues and organs. Dr. Masatoshi Takeichi and Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti pinpointed the essential core processes in the complex phenomena of cell adhesion and succeeded in elucidating the mechanisms at the molecular level. Their accomplishments are expected to fundamentally contribute to working out the etiology and developing therapy of serious diseases such as malignant tumors.
The Science and Technology Foundation of JapanCONTACT: Ueda, Masaaki, Executive Officer of The Science and TechnologyFoundation of Japan +81-3-3432-5951, Fax: +81-3-3432-5954 orinfo@japanprize.jp