George Whitesides, who serves on the board of scientific governors at the Scripps Research Institute and also is on the scientific advisory board at Diversa, a San Diego-based biotech company, is the 2003 Kyoto Prize Laureate in the field of advanced technology.

The Kyoto Prize is given annually by the Inamori Foundation, a nonprofit founded and chaired by Kazuo Inamori, chairman emeritus of the Kyocera Corp.

Kyocera’s North American headquarters is in San Diego and Inamori is a part-time resident. The laureates will convene March 3-5, 2004, for the third annual Kyoto Laureate Symposium, a three-day observance at USD’s Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. This is the 19th presentation of the Kyoto prizes.