Professor Keiko Torii, Nagoya University Collaborating Researcher and former PI at the Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (WPI-ITbM), has been awarded the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, a prestigious national honor awarded for contribution to the academic and artistic development of Japan. Professor Torii, who is also Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, received the award for her plant science research, specifically research into the development of plant stomata. This is the second consecutive year that a Nagoya University plant scientist has received the medal, following Professor Hitoshi Sakakibara in 2023.
Professor Torii returned to Nagoya University on Monday, May 20, to give a commemorative lecture on her research. "Research is about following the feeling of excitement and going wherever it takes you," she said, giving advice to the young researchers and students in the audience. "This award is the product of work contributed to by my colleagues, collaborators – especially at ITbM – and lab members, and to them I offer my deepest thanks."
