Professor Makoto Fujita (AMS) was selected as the recipient of Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards, administered by American Chemical Society for 2013, in recognition of his excellent research in metal-directed supramolecular self-assembly.
In 1990, Prof. Fujita achieved his famous Pd(II)-bipyridine square, a self-assembled molecular square with Pd(II) atoms at its corners. Ligands in the square contain multiple coordination sites, form bridges between metal atoms, thereby help build up supramolecular structures.
His work had an enormous impact on the molecular sciences. It overcame the difficulties of earlier covalent synthesis. The self-assembly methods are used for modern tool of physical organic chemistry, for studies in molecular recognition, and for amplifying weak intermolecular forces, thereby characterizing molecules that have fleeting lifetimes in solution.
Prof. Fujita and his group are ongoing studies to create a simple biological structure, which is considered almost impossible, through self-assembly.