The symposium was held on July 14, 2011 in the Lillie Auditorium of the MBL in honor of Shinya Inoué, celebrating his 90th birthday, his outstanding contributions to biology, and more than 60 years of affiliation with the MBL.

In 1949, Shinya Inoué arrived at MBL from Princeton University, where he was pursuing graduate work supported by a fellowship arranged by Jean and Katsuma Dan. It has been said that “Standing out at the MBL is like standing out in a large school of talented, brilliant fish. But MBL Distinguished Scientist Shinya Inoué, with his maverick ways and fearless attitude, often swims outside the school altogether…” From the start, Shinya Inoué put himself out there, using the potent combination of a fundamental problem to work on (cell division), a unique tool set that he refined for precise and quantitative observations of the living state (polarized light microscopy), and a fresh and brilliant mind that was unafraid of challenging current dogma.

Photos taken during the Symposium

Slides shown at the Symposium

Below, the following presentations can be viewed as videos

Rudolf Oldenbourg, MBL   Welcoming remarks and introduction
Gary Borisy, MBL   Medea, microscopes and MBL
Shinya Inoué, MBL   Jean and Katsuma Dan: A personal tribute to their legacy in science and teaching
Ted Salmon, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill   Kinetochore protein architecture from super resolution fluorescence microscopy
Jennifer Zallen, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center   Shaping the embryo: Multicellular dynamics in development
David McClay, Duke University,   The cell biology of sea urchin gastrulation as revealed by imaging
Tim Mitchison, Harvard Medical School   Closing remarks

The Symposium includes the Jean and Katsuma Dan lecture, an endowed lectureship for students of the Physiology and Embryology courses. Shinya Inoue will pay tribute to their legacy, in recognition of his close friendship with Jean and “Katy,” his first scientific mentor.