Background
The Japan Consortium for Glycobiology and Glycotechnology (JCGG) established the Tamio Yamakawa Award to honor the distinguished career of Professor Tamio Yamakawa and his outstanding contributions to the field of glycoscience. The award was funded by a donation from the Sialic Acid Society to JCGG. This international award is presented every two years to a glycoscientist who has made major and widely recognized contributions to glycoscience and is, in principle, a currently active researcher. The 2016 Tamio Yamakawa Award, the first award, was presented on November 1, 2016 to Prof. Markus Aebi of ETH Zurich, the 2018 Award on November 26, 2018 to Prof. Gerald W. Hart of CCRC, the 2020 Award on December 7, 2021 to Prof. Kevin P. Campbell of the University of Iowa, the 2022 Award on November 30, 2023 to Prof. James C. Paulson of The Scripps Research Institute, and the 2024 Award on September 19, 2025 to Prof. Richard D. Cummings.
Nominations
JCGG wishes to receive nominations for the 2026 Tamio Yamakawa Award from glycoscientists. Any active glycoscientist as an individual may nominate any other glycoscientist who meets the criteria for the Award, except the members of the Selection Committee. The primary nominator shall contact the candidate nominee to obtain permission to nominate him/her and to make the nominee aware that he/she will be nominated, before submitting the nomination to JCGG.
The nomination should include:
The nominee’s curriculum vitae, which should be less than 5 letter- or A4-sized pages and should include
1) a brief bibliography,
2) a list of original peer-reviewed articles, and
3) other publications. (Abstracts are not to be included in the above items)
A letter of nomination that should be within 1,000 words or less and contains the following:
1) a brief description of the scientific achievements of the nominee that merit the award,
2) other aspects of the nominee’s professional record that might be taken into consideration (e.g. mentorship of trainees, general impact of his/her research on the field, interactions with other scientists, service to glycoscience-related societies, etc.), and
3) a list of the five most important original papers published by the nominee.
Letters that exceed this limit will not be considered valid.
All documents mentioned above should be submitted in the form of a single PDF file to the JCGG office/Tamio Yamakawa Award desk (tya_office@jcgg.jp).
The submission deadline is 24:00 on September 10, 2026 (Japan time).
The selection results will be announced at the end of February 2027.
Selection Committee
The chair of the Selection Committee is selected by the executive board members of JCGG. The Selection Committee members may not be nominated nor are they eligible to submit nominations or contribute letters of support.
The Award
The award consists of a certificate and a cash award of 300,000 yen and will be presented at a JCGG symposium. The awardee will be expected to deliver the Tamio Yamakawa Award Lecture at the JCGG symposium scheduled for 2027 in Tokyo.
Professor Tamio Yamakawa
Please see a report on his academic accomplishments:
Akemi Suzuki: Tamio Yamakawa: Dawn of Glycobiology. J. Biochem. 146, 149-156, 2009
http://jb.oxfordjournals.org/content/146/2/149.abstract
Please direct any questions or inquiries to the contact information below:
The Japan Consortium
for Glycobiology and Glycotechnology (JCGG)
Tamio Yamakawa Award desk : tya_office@jcgg.jp
The JCGG office : jcgg-office@jcgg.jp