Google doodle remembers Japanese scientist Michiyo Tsujimura on 133rd birth anniversary

On Friday, September 17th, Google Doodle commemorated the 133rd birthday of Michiyo Tsujimura, a Japanese educator and biochemist. She is well-known for her revolutionary studies on Green Tea's nutritional advantages. Tsujimura was the first woman in Japan to earn a doctorate in agriculture, and her study concentrated on the health benefits of green tea.

Born in 1888 in Okegawa, Japan, Tsujimura graduated from Tokyo Prefecture Women's Normal School in 1909 and went to Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School's Division of Science. She graduated in 1913 and went on to teach at Kanagawa Prefecture's Yokohama High School for Women. She went back to Saitama Prefecture in 1917 to teach at the Saitama Women's Normal School.

Career of Michiyo Tsujimura

Tsujimura started her research career as a laboratory assistant at Hokkaido Imperial University in 1920. Green tea flavonoid catechin was discovered by Tsujimura in 1929. In 1930, she isolated green tea tannin in the form of crystals. In 1932, she received a doctorate in agriculture from Tokyo Imperial University for her thesis on the ingredients of green tea, titled "On the Chemical Components of Green Tea," making her the first woman in Japan to do so. She isolated gallocatechin from green tea, and in 1935, she filed a patent for her method of obtaining vitamin C crystals from plants in 1934.

Talking about the Japanese biochemist, the Google Doodle page says, "Outside of her research, Dr Tsujimura also made history as an educator when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950. Today, a stone memorial in honor of Dr Tsujimura’s achievements can be found in her birthplace of Okegawa City."

Tsujimura received the Japan Prize of Agricultural Science for her study on green tea

From 1955 to 1963, Tsujimura was a professor at Jissen Women's University in Tokyo, where she later became a professor emeritus. In 1956, she received the Japan Prize of Agricultural Science for her study on green tea, and in 1968, she was given the Order of the Precious Crown of the Fourth Class. She died on June 1, 1969, in Toyohashi at the age of 80.

Image: Twitter/@GoogleDoodles