Shinya Yamanaka

Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
However, it was very natural that a failed surgeon with little experience in molecular biology had a hard time finding a position. A turning point came when I got a fax from Thomas Innerarity at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in San Francisco. After a short telephone conversation, Tom was brave enough to give me a postdoctoral position in his lab! Working at Gladstone was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2012 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 42 →
Óscar Arias Sánchez President of Costa Rica, 1986–1990 and 2006–2010
My country is a country of teachers. It is therefore a country of peace. We discuss our successes and failures in complete freedom. Because our country is a country of teachers, we closed the army camps, and our children go with books under their arms, not with rifles on their shoulders. We believe in dialogue, in agreement, in reaching a consensus. We reject violence. Because my country is a country of teachers, we believe in convincing our opponents, not defeating them. We prefer raising the fallen to crushing them, because we believe that no one possesses the absolute truth.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 11 December 1987 source ↗
Malala Yousafzai Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls quality education, everywhere, anywhere in the world and to raise their voices. The first place this funding will go to is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 source ↗
Roger Federer Swiss professional tennis player, 1998–2022
Of all the gifts that tennis has given me over the years, the greatest, without a doubt, has been the people I've met along the way: my friends, my competitors, and most of all the fans who give the sport its life.
Recorded Open letter, 'To my tennis family and beyond', Reuters, 15 September 2022 source ↗
Aung San Suu Kyi Leader of the National League for Democracy; Nobel Peace Prize laureate; State Counsellor of Myanmar, 2016–2021
Can we afford to indulge in compassion fatigue? Is the cost of meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering?
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 16 June 2012 source ↗

More from Shinya Yamanaka

View profile →
Question What does everyone in your world seem to agree on that you think is wrong? Values & belief
In Japan, however, I found myself suffering from Post America Depression or PAD. The environment for researchers in Japan was quite different in many ways from that in the U.S. At the medical school, very few scientists showed interest in the basic biology of mouse ES cells, and there was little thought-provoking discussion with my colleagues. Some of my colleagues advised me to work on something more related to medicine. Furthermore, I could not get enough funding and had to change the cages of the numerous mice by myself every week. What was worse, the Nat1 work was being rejected by many journals. I felt lonely and depressed, and I was about to give up my career as a scientist and return to the path of physician.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2012 source ↗
Question Which problem are you still chipping away at? Craft & work
we can select one gene out of those 20,000 genes, and completely destroy that one particular gene so that we can understand the function of that particular gene. I got very interested in that technology. It was 1992 or 1993 when I graduated from my Ph.D. school. So I decided to study — I decided to learn about knockout mouse technology. But at that time in Japan, only a few scientists were working on knockout mouse technology
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 2008 source ↗
Question How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? Failure & regret
Working at the hospital, I found that my surgical skills were not as good as I expected. One time it took me two hours to do a surgical operation which could have been completed in 30 minutes by other surgeons. My supervisors were very tough on new residents like me, and I lost confidence in my ability.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 2012 source ↗

More on money & investment

Also answered this

Emmanuelle Charpentier, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Svante Pääbo, Richard Feynman, Daniel Kahneman, Elizabeth Iro

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer