CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Kuo-Hsiung Lee, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at UNC Chapel Hill, Wins Prestigious Award from Japanese Government.
Lee, a distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, at the University of North Carolina, has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, for his contributions to the development of medicinal chemistry in Japan.
In his 41-year career at UNC, more than 80 Japanese scholars have honed their understanding of medicinal chemistry under Dr. Lee’s tutelage.
Lee is the director of the Natural Products Research Laboratories at UNC Chapel Hill.
He has discovered several thousand bioactive natural products and their synthetic analogs, providing leads for new generation drug design against AIDS, cancer, and other diseases, including many natural products and analogs currently in clinical trials or preclinical development.
The Order of the Rising Sun was established in 1875 as the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government.
It is presented to individuals who have made distinguished contributions to Japan and is the third most prestigious Japanese decoration after the Order of the Chrysanthemum and the Order of the Paulownia Flowers.
The award is administered by the Decoration Bureau of Office of the Prime Minister and is presented in the name of the Emperor.
Prior recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, include actor Clint Eastwood and scholars Carol Gluck, Edwin McClellan, Edward Seidensticker, Earl Miner, and Susan Pharr.
Dr. Lee has authored more than 700 research articles and 70 patent applications and has given more than 385 invited lectures and presentations.
He is also a member of the editorial advisory board for 24 journals.
His prior awards include The Lifu Academic Award for Chinese Medicine, 1994; Outstanding Achievement Award, University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, 1999; Taiwanese-American Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award in Science and Engineering, USA, 2003; Kitasato Microbial Chemistry Medal, Japan, 2005; and the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award from American Society of Pharmacognosy, 2009.
He was elected Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan, in 1996.
