Omura, professor emeritus at Kitasato University, shared one-half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of an anti-roundworm parasite drug, avermectin. Ivermectin, which is a newer derivative of avermectin, has radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, among other parasitic diseases.

(Photo: Satoshi Omura)