is a Japanese developmental biologist known for his pioneer research on Activin. He is Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and Yokohama City University. He is also Vice President of the Tokyo University of Science. Contribution Asashima and his colleagues identified Activin in 1990, which exhibits a wide range of biological activities including regulation of cellular proliferation and differentiation. Biography Asashima was born in Sado, Niigata in 1944. He graduated from Tokyo University of Education in March 1967, and received his Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo in 1972. He was a postdoctoral fellow under Heinz Tiedemann at Free University of Berlin between 1972 and 1974, and a member of the faculty of Yokohama City University between 1972 and 1993, before being appointed as a professor at The University of Tokyo in 1993. Recognition 1994: Kihara Memorial Foundation Academic Award (Japan) 2001: Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy (Japan) 2008: Person of Cultural Merit (Japan) 2008: Erwin-Stein-Preises (Germany) References External links AIST profile 1944 births Living people People from Sado, Niigata Developmental biologists Japanese biologists Academic staff of Yokohama City University Academic staff of the University of Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni Laureates of the Imperial Prize Persons of Cultural Merit