Osamu Shimomura (born August 27, 1928) is a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University Medical School. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with two American scientists: Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California-San Diego.

Shimomura was awarded a BS degree in pharmacy in 1951, and he stayed on as a lab assistant through 1955. While working for Professor Hirata, he received a MS degree in organic chemistry in 1958 and, before leaving Japan for an appointment at the Princeton University, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1960 at Nagoya University
The article caught the attention of Professor Frank Johnson at Princeton University, and Johnson successfully recruited Shimomura to work with him in 1960.
 

Honors:

Pearse Prize (2004)
Emile Chamot Award (2005)
Asahi Prize (2006)
Nobel Prize (2008)
Order of Culture (2008), Japan.