Hiroshi Tamiya

Hiroshi Tamiya (田宮 博, Tamiya Hiroshi, born January 5, 1903, Tokyo; died March 20, 1984) was an important Japanese plant biochemist and microbiologist who was notable for mid-twentieth century research he did on the thermodynamics of the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis. Tamiya was a student of acclaimed Japanese plant physiologist Keita Shibata as a student at Tokyo University. American biologist Andrew Benson, who was instrumental in understanding carbon fixation in plants considered Tamiya inspirational in Benson's success as a scientist. Tamiya worked and studied in Japan, Europe, and the United States collaborating internationally with a variety of scientists of the early and mid-twentieth century.

After World War II, during the Allied Occupation of Japan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Harry C. Kelly selected Tamiya to assist him in evaluating legitimate scientific research in Japan. The mission was largely in response to the destruction of cyclotrons by the United States Army acting out of fear the Japanese had been researching and developing a nuclear weapon during the war. One of the cyclotrons destroyed was an instrument that Tamiya required for his research.

In 1953 Tamiya, working with other Japanese scientists, developed important techniques for the synchronous culture of the green algae Chlorella, a model organism used by German Nobel Laureate Otto Heinrich Warburg whom Tamiya greatly admired. In this technique Tamiya was able to culture algal cell lines that were all in the same developmental stage, an important technique used by later scientists to decipher the life cycles of other single celled eukaryotic organisms.

In 1966 Tamiya was made a foreign associate member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 1977 Tamiya was given the Japanese Order of Culture for his contributions to science in Japan.