Growing up in Osaka, Japan, Hisashi Fujioka always had a love for biology and the natural world around him. That passion drew him to earn his PhD at Nagoya University before forging a 30-year research career in different aspects of science at Case Western Reserve.
Now, the Case Western Reserve University community is mourning the passing of Fujioka, who died Thursday, Jan. 23. He was 75.
“Dr. Fujioka was an exceptional scientist, renowned for his brilliant mind and collaborative spirit,” said Sudha Chakrapani, the John H. Hord Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. “His contributions were instrumental in groundbreaking work on neurodegenerative diseases and malaria research. He will be deeply missed.”
After arriving at CWRU in 1994, Fujioka held a variety of roles at the School of Medicine, most recently sharing his expertise as manager of standard electron microscopy (EM) services for the CryoEM Core. He previously spent time in both the Department of Pharmacology and the Institute of Pathology. A passionate researcher in the School of Medicine malaria community for many years, Fujioka came to Case Western Reserve to serve as faculty in renowned malaria researcher Masamichi Aikawa’s lab. During his career, he contributed to more than 100 published papers.
“Hisashi was a kind, generous and soft-spoken colleague, and he was a consummate electron microscopist,” said Clifford Harding, the Joseph R. Kahn Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology. “I first got to know Hisashi in the early 1990s. More than a decade later, after I had discontinued electron microscopy as a technology in my lab to focus on other technologies, Hisashi helped us perform immunoelectron microscopy in projects on exosomes and bacterial vesicles.”
Fujioka’s family will receive friends Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m., at The Dicicco & Sons Funeral Home, located at 5975 Mayfield Rd. in Mayfield Heights. A service will follow at 5:30 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested donations to the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Masamichi Aikawa, M.D. Memorial Lecture Fund.
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