Illustration of the Japanese chemist Akira Suzuki (born 1930). Suzuki is best known for his work on cross-coupling reactions, where two molecules are joined together with the aid of a metal catalyst. In 1979 he published the Suzuki reaction, or Suzuki coupling, where a boronic acid and an organohalide are joined using a palladium catalyst. It had a number of advantages over similar reactions, including using less toxic and cheaper compounds. Suzuki was awarded a share of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Richard Heck and Ei-ichi Negishi for his work on palladium-catalysed cross-couplings.