Junzo Otera was born in Hyogo, Japan in 1943. He obtained his PhD degree in 1971 from Osaka University, and then became a research chemist in Central Research Laboratories of Juraray Co. In 1979, he moved to Okayama University of Science as Associate Professor and has been Full Professor there since 1986. In the meantime, he served as a visiting professor in many universities in Japan, USA, France, Spain and Australia. his research interests are focused on Lewis acid catalysts, heteroatom chemistry, fluorous chemistry, and green process chemistry.
Joji Nishikido received his M. Sc. from Kyushu University in 1970 and joined Asahi Chemical Industrial Co. , Ltd. in the same year. He moved to The Noguchi Institute in 1997 and returned to Asahi Kasei Corporation as chief chemist in 2004. His research interests are in the area of synthetic organic chemistry, Lewis acid catalysts, and green chemistry.
