Spotlight on Jun Ogawa, AOCS Fellow

Congratulations to Jun Ogawa for winning the AOCS Fellow Award! 

The AOCS Fellow Award recognizes achievements in science and/or extraordinary service to the Society.

This spotlight will help you get to know Dr. Ogawa including his current research and how AOCS has helped develop his career.

Jun Ogawa is a professor at the division of applied life sciences, graduate school of agriculture at Kyoto University. His research interests are screening and development of novel microbial functions useful for life sciences, food sciences, environmental sciences, and green chemistry. His investigation of fatty acid metabolism by the gut microbiome has identified numerous metabolic products that have potential physiological effects. Dr. Ogawa has published over 250 papers on applied microbiology and his work has been recognized by awards including the Oleoscience Award by the Japan Oil Chemists' Society in 2015 and the AOCS Ching Hou Biotechnology Award in 2020. 

Dr. Ogawa has been a member of AOCS since 1998 and has participated in the Biotechnology Division sessions at almost every annual meeting since then. He has is active in organizing BIO Division sessions and served as a Division officer and Division Chair. He played a pivotal role in the 2018 JOCS-AOCS Joint Symposium. He has also been instrumental in supporting the participation of young researchers in the AOCS Annual Meeting.  

In addition to his activity in AOCS, Dr. Ogawa is an active member of Japanese Oil Chemists Society, and the Japanese Association for Food Immunology (JAFI).  He has served as a Director of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry

What was your reaction when you learned you had won the award?

I am very much honored to receive this symbolic award, AOCS Fellow Award. I am grateful to the steering members of the Biotechnology division for giving me a chance. I greatly appreciate the support of my laboratory members. I hope I can continue to research and contribute to the further progress of the lipid Biotechnology and AOCS.

How has AOCS helped develop your career?

I was able to get acquainted with worldwide many talented and active researchers in the field of lipid biotechnology. The experiences in AOCS cultivated my philosophy in research and society management.

Dr. Ogawa will be presenting he award presentation on his work with molecular breeding of the ω3-docosapentaenoic acid-producing microorganism Aurantiochytrium sp. T7 at the 2021 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo, May 3-14, 2021.