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Susumu Tonegawa
Susumu Tonegawa · User9131986 A cropped version, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Person

Susumu Tonegawa

1939 – 2026 · aged 87

Japanese biologist, neuroscientist (1939–2026)

Born
5 Sept 1939 · Nagoya
Died
11 Jul 2026 · San Mateo
Part ofJapan230 BCE – today

Life timeline

Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.

Showing 100 years
  1. 5 Sept 1939BornBorn in Nagoya
  2. 1978AwardCloëtta Prize
  3. 1981AwardAsahi Prize
  4. 1981AwardGerman Immunology Prize
  5. 1982AwardLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize
  6. 1983AwardCanada Gairdner International Award
  7. 1983AwardPerson of Cultural Merit
  8. 1984AwardOrder of Culture
  9. 1986AwardBristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research
  10. 1986AwardRobert Koch Prize
  11. 1987AwardAlbert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
  12. 1987AwardNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  13. 1991AwardShincho Gakugei Literature Prize
  14. 11 Jul 2026DiedDied in San Mateo

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Meanwhile in the world

Major world events during their lifetime (1939 – 2026).

  1. 1939 – 1940Winter War
  2. 1939 – 1945World War II
  3. 1940 – 1945Auschwitz concentration camp
  4. 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
  5. 1941 – 1945Eastern Front
  6. 1941Operation Barbarossa
  7. 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
  8. 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  9. 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
  10. 19501950 FIFA World Cup
  11. 1950 – 1953Korean War
  12. 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
  13. 19541954 FIFA World Cup
  14. 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
  15. 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
  16. 1956Suez Crisis
  17. 19581958 FIFA World Cup
  18. 1959Antarctic Treaty System
  19. 19621962 FIFA World Cup
  20. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
  21. 19661966 FIFA World Cup
  22. 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
  23. 1968Prague Spring
  24. 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
  25. 19721972 Summer Olympics
  26. 19741974 FIFA World Cup
  27. 19781978 FIFA World Cup
  28. 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
  29. 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
  30. 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
  31. 19841984 Summer Olympics
  32. 1985Schengen Agreement
  33. 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
  34. 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
  35. 19901990 FIFA World Cup
  36. 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  37. 19941994 FIFA World Cup
  38. 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
  39. 19981998 FIFA World Cup
  40. 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan

Biography

Susumu Tonegawa (利根川 進, Tonegawa Susumu; September 5, 1939 – July 11, 2026) was a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa was a molecular biologist by training and, following his Nobel Prize win, changed fields to neuroscience, examining the molecular, cellular and neuronal basis of memory formation and retrieval.

Text from the Wikipedia article Susumu Tonegawa, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this information

Dates and life events come from this person’s Wikidata entry.

We only show events that the sources give a date for. Anything without a date is left out rather than guessed.