Shinya Inoué *51

Shinya Inoué, an innovative microscopist and cell biophysicist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Falmouth, Mass., died Sept. 30, 2019, at age 98.

Inoué graduated from Tokyo University in 1944. In 1948 he entered Princeton, and he earned a Ph.D. in biology in 1951. In his more than half-century career, Inoué introduced the era of live-cell imaging by using polarized-light microscopes to explore the intricacies of cellular structure and dynamics.

Before joining the MBL full time in 1982 as a senior scientist, he was at the University of Pennsylvania. At the MBL he founded an international collaborative center for innovation in light microscopy, which benefited interaction between the microscopy industry and the academic community. The MBL named him a Distinguished Scientist in 1986, its highest honor.

Inoué held four patents for his microscopes and wrote innumerable papers, many included in The Collected Works of Shinya  Inoué: Microscopes, Living Cells, and Dynamic Microscopes (2008). He was honored by the Government of Japan, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Microscopy Society of America, and the American Society for Cell Biology.

He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; five children; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.