Nobel Winner Negishi hospitalized after car accident, wife dies

March 15, 2018

Chicago- A car boarded by Eiichi Negishi, who won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has caused an accident in Illinois, and his wife, Sumire, also in the vehicle, has died, sources including local police said Wednesday.

Negishi, 82, professor at Purdue University, is under treatment for dehydration at a local hospital.

According to the police and media reports, Negishi, who is believed to have been at the wheel, and Sumire, 80, apparently got lost on their way to an airport.

On Tuesday, police officers found Negishi wandering for help near the car, which was stuck in a ditch at a landfill. The couple was reported to police as missing on Monday. No foul play is suspected, according to the police.

"Purdue University and the world have lost a dear friend in the death of Sumire Negishi," Mitch Daniels, president of the university in Indiana, said in a statement.

"Throughout a lifetime of love and loyalty, she supported her husband in a career of tremendous contributions to science and to the teaching and training of subsequent generations of top scientists," he added.

Negishi shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with two other scientists for developing "palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis," a method to help create better medicines and electronics. Jiji Press