by Alice Park – Time –
Dr. Shinya Yamanaka can no longer enjoy a beer in peace. After a long day at a recent conference in Montreal, the scientist found a seat at the quiet hotel bar, hoping for a few moments to himself. “But unfortunately, or fortunately, a group of Japanese businessmen came into the bar,” he says. And although scientists don’t get recognized very often, Yamanaka is a celebrity in Japan.
He doesn’t mind. Celebrity, he knows, is a small price to pay for the profound impact that he has on an impressively wide range of scientific fields: developmental biology, regenerative medicine, chronic-disease treatments, and, increasingly, longevity. In 2006, he published a groundbreaking paper that would forever change our understanding about how the human body develops and ages, and how to reverse those processes. In 2012, Yamanaka earned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work, becoming a hero in his country and inspiring generations of scientists worldwide.
