Hisashi Yamamoto (born 1943) start his research in Hitosi Nozaki's laboratory at the Kyoto University, Japan. After obtaining his PhD under the mentorship of Elias J. Corey, he joined Toray Industries, Inc., Japan and then he became instructor and then lecturer at Kyoto University. In due course, he was professor at the University of Hawaii and at Nagoya University, Japan. Eventually in 2002, he became Professor at the University of Chicago. Since 2002 he is Professor at the University of Chicago.
Hisashi Yamamoto's work has been widely acknowledged and honoured with several academic awards and honours (e.g. Max-Tishler Prize, 1998, Le Grand Prix de la Fondation Maison de la Chimie, 2001, Tetrahedron Chair, 2002). He is on editorial boards of several outstanding publications inclusive European Journal of Organic Chemistry and Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis.

Koichiro Oshima (born 1947) obtained his PhD under the supervision of Hitosi Nozaki at Kyoto University, Japan. He spent two years at MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate in the group headed by Barry Sharpless. At present he is Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, and his research deals with the manifold use of main group elements in organic synthesis.
Koichiro Oshima's work was honored in 1983 with the Incentive Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.