Dear colleagues,

I am very sorry to inform you that our former president, a long-time APSN member, a great mentor, and a good friend of us, Dr. Kazuhiro Ikenaka has passed away on 27th, October after a long fight with cancer.

He has been nurturing our Society and the researchers of the AP regions like a father. I hereby thank him for his great contribution.

With deepest sorrow,
Akio Wanaka
APSN president

In this October, I lost two intimate people. My mentor Professor Kinya Kuriyama passed away on Oct. 13 at the age of 86. Two weeks later, Oct. 27, Professor Kazuhiro Ikenaka died at the age of 65. October in 2018 thus became one of the saddest months in my life. I now regret a lot my bad custom not to take pictures with intimate people. Professor Kuriyama enthusiastically led me to the neurochemistry field as a scholar. He taught me how to write a scientific manuscript and how to present the data obtained. He used to work usually for more than 12 hours from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day in weekdays during his 25 consecutive active years. On the other hand, Kazu was always one step ahead of me in the science even though he was younger than I. We graduated from the same junior high school in Sakai and entered the same university in Osaka. He came to my poster to ask the technological details of NMDA receptor binding in his PhD student days during an annual meeting of the Japanese Neurochemistry Society years ago. That is the first time I met him. I never thought of his death earlier than me. I would pray for their souls with the deepest sympathy. RIP

Emeritus Prof. Yukio Yoneda
Kanazawa University, Japan

I cannot believe Kaz is no longer with us. He was a true friend and a great mentor. He will be sorely missed & always in my thoughts.

Please pass on my sympathy to his family

Kind regards
Prof. Andy Lawrence
Past APSN President
Floreys Institute, Melbourne, Australia

That is very sad news… Ikenaka I knew through APSN having met him at the first meeting in Hyderabad and followed his progression through APSN President and later ISN President. I shall miss him. RIP

Emeritus Prof. Graham Johnston
University of Sydney, Australia

I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with Dr. Kazuhiro Ikenaka during severel APSN or APSN/ISN meetings. I hope that his legacy will live on forever. Please accept my condolences.

Sincerely,
Prof. Orly Reiner
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

I felt sad to hear about the sad demise of Prof. Ikenaka, a giant in the field of Neurochemistry. I remember meeting him in the APSN meeting in Kobe, Japan, in 2012. He will be missed by all those who have known him.

Please accept my heartfelt condolences. May the almighty give strength to the near and dear of the departed soul, during this difficult time.

Regards,
Prof. Bharath
Bangalore

It is very sad to know that Prof. Kazuhiro Ikenaka is no more with us. I fondly remember him for our association in APSN. I had closely worked with him as Secretary, APSN, while he was the president. We worked together in APSN for 4 years. Moreover, he was like a mentor to me. He was a very hard worker, systematic, and a good scientist. He attended several conferences held in India by Indian Neurochemistry Society (SNCI). My last memory with him would be in his last visit to Hyderabad, India, where my family and I had dinner with him and his wife Yumiko. May his soul rest in peace.

Prof. Prakash Babu
University of Hyderabad, India

I was not able to make any words to express my emotion for a while. Dr. Ikenaka is my role model, a true friend, a trustable mentor, and a great colleague. I was very lucky to meet him about 15 years ago, and at that time I did not realize our relationship would last long to forever. I would express my sincere condolence to his family and everyone who miss him.

Sincerely,

Woong Sun
APSN Treasurer
Korea University College of Medicine
Seoul, Korea

These are very sad and terrible news. We have been worried about Kaz for quite a while. It is shocking to learn now that he has finally lost his fight against the cancer. With Kaz we all have lost a very good friend and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts are with Yumiko and his entire family.

As we are not familiar with the custom in Japan on such a situation, we would very much appreciate if you could kindly give us some advice what we as ISN could and should do now immediately before or for the memorial service to honour Kaz as our President and to pay tribute to a good friend and to a committed ISN member, councilor and officer.

Best wishes

Prof. Ralf Dringen
ISN secretary
University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany

Kaz had been a good Friend and I had learnt so much from him working together for APSN since 2004.

Please convey my and Ai Lin’s condolences to Yumiko and family.

With deep sorrow,
Prof. Peter Wong
National University of Singapore
Singapore

He was a wonderful man. He had a a great positive energy inside him. I became motivated with the words he suggested first time during ISN meeting 2009 at South Korea. Onbehalf of Myself and our Indian Community express deep condolences. Science will always remember him for his contributions in neuroscience.

Dr Neeraj Tiwari , India