Chemist Ryoji Noyori, who this week won the 2001 Nobel Prize in chemistry, underscored on Thursday the importance of resolve in conducting scientific research.
"What is most important in research is your own ambition," the 63-year-old professor at Nagoya University said.
The interview came a day after he and his colleagues, William Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless of the United States, were awarded the prizes.
Noyori was cited for his work on chirally catalyzed hydrogenation reactions.