The organizers of the ICPP-2 are pleased to announce with this meeting the inauguration of the Iwao Tabushi Award for applications-based achievements in the area of porphyrin and phthalocyanine chemistry.  The first recipient of this award is Dr. Thomas Dougherty of the Roswell Park Memorial Cancer Institute.  Dr. Dougherty is well known for his singular efforts to develop the field of photodynamic therapy and for his pioneering efforts to make porphyrins and porphyrin analogues useful in cancer therapy and, indeed, medicine in general.
   Professor Iwao Tabushi (1933-1987) is still revered as being one of the founding fathers of biomimetic chemistry and is widely appreciated as being one of the most active and creative of all Japanese scientists.  His chemical experience and interests originated with basic physical organic chemistry but was later extended beyond the traditional confines of that field to embrace efforts to simulate biochemical processes by using simple synthetic molecules.  His first contribution to the field of porphyrin chemistry came with his kinetic investigations of a highly oxidized porphyrin Mn complex, work that was reported in 1975.  Subsequently, his wide-ranging interests in biological phenomena led him to recognize porphyrin molecules as being one of the most important elements in biomimetic chemistry.  Accordingly, he expanded his efforts in the porphyrin area and began constructing a variety of artificial porphyrin systems.  Here, he was nothing short of prolific.  Indeed, within the decade following his initial entry into the porphyrin area, Professor Tabushi and members of his research group reported several new artificial P-450 systems, a new type of dimeric porphyrin ("gable porphyrin"), a range of artificial vesicles functionalized with synthetic and natural porphyrins, as well as a variety of new synthetic porphyrin derivatives.  He used these latter porphyrins as mimics for electron and energy transfer systems in natural photosynthetic and respiration assemblies, redox enzymes, allosteric enzymes and even as synthetic reagents.
   Professor Tabushi's unique style of investigation was based not only on his substantial knowledge and experience in the area of traditional physical organic chemistry but also on his forward-looking vision and deep insight into what might be possible by the appropriate application of the synthetic chemist's art.  He saw himself as a synthetic chemist and liked to describe his work as involving the "synthesis of molecular functions".  Using this combination of vision and synthetic power, Professor Tabushi was able to look into the future and help define it. That he succeeded so thoroughly was due not just to his unparalleled creativity but also to the fact that he always looked for simple formulas that made it possible to describe both chemical and biological phenomena with a common scientific language.  This led generality and importance to his work that has served for a whole generation of chemists in Japan and abroad.  Thus, although his untimely early death in 1987 brought to an abrupt halt Professor Tabushi's contributions to the area of biomimetic chemistry, his spirit lives on the chemical laboratories of many investigators world-wide.  He has left a legacy that will animate the present award bearing his name with special honor.