Tonegawa was a renowned molecular biologist who wielded his keen insight in a variety of fields, including immunology and neuroscience. In the early 1980s, Tonegawa discovered how the immune system generates its incredible diversity of antibodies ' a breakthrough that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1987. An MIT faculty member for more than 40 years, Tonegawa also served as the founding director of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and director of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute of Japan, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. 'Few scientists have reshaped our understanding of biology as profoundly as Susumu Tonegawa,' says Myriam Heiman, director of the Picower Institute. 'His intellectual fearlessness, extraordinary creativity, and relentless pursuit of fundamental questions opened entirely new frontiers in both immunology and neuroscience. His influence on science and on the people who had the privilege of working alongside...
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