Yasuo Ohnishi received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Tokyo (1991, 1993 and 1996), and carried out postdoctoral research at the same university (1996-1997). He wrote a doctoral thesis on protein secretion in Gram-negative bacteria. Since he received his Ph.D., he has been engaged in research on Streptomyces genetics and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. He was appointed as an assistant professor (1997) and an associate professor (2002) in the Prof. S. Horinouchi’s laboratory, The University of Tokyo. Then, he was appointed as a full professor in 2010, succeeding the late Prof. S. Horinouchi. He published over 130 scientific articles. He received the following awards; Hamada Award from The Society for Actinomycetes Japan, 2002; Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry Award for the Encouragement of Young Scientists, 2003; Japan Prize in Agricultural Sciences, Achievement Award for Young Scientists, 2007; The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, The Young Scientists’ Prize, 2008; JSPS Prize, 2013.