Photo: 日本学士院 / CC BY 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Susumu Kitagawa is exactly the kind of scientist I find quietly heroic. His work on porous coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks reads, to a layperson like me, almost like architecture at the molecular scale: designing materials full of deliberate empty space to capture and channel gases. The path from a Kyoto University training to the Clarivate Citation laureate list and ultimately a Nobel Prize reflects decades of patient, unglamorous accumulation. I admire that he chose depth over spectacle. There is something deeply moving about world-changing knowledge emerging not from noise, but from one chemist's sustained curiosity in Kyoto.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Susumu Kitagawa
- Name (Japanese)
- 北川進
- Reading
- 不明
- Born
- July 4, 1951 (age 74)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Rabbit
- Origin
- Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- chemist / university teacher
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Kyoto University
Awards & achievements
- 2013 De Gennes Prize
- 2010 Clarivate Citation Laureates
- 2017 Ernest Solvay Prize
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Official sitehttp://www.kitagawa.icems.kyoto-u.ac.jp/?lang=en
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E5%B7%9D%E9%80%B2
Frequently asked questions
When was Susumu Kitagawa born?
Born July 4, 1951 (age 74).
Where is Susumu Kitagawa from?
Susumu Kitagawa is from Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.
What does Susumu Kitagawa do?
Susumu Kitagawa works as chemist, university teacher.
Chemist — see all → · University teacher — see all → · More people from Japan →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-21
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.