[1] Kochi was born to Japanese immigrant parents on May 17, 1927, in Los Angeles, California, where he and his family had lived until he and his family were imprisoned at the Gila River War Relocation Center in 1942 just after the United States entered the Second World War and Executive Order 9066 was signed.
For the majority of his faculty career, however, he was located at the University of Houston, where he was Welch Professor.
Kochi's work showed that this reaction proceeds via a complex between benzene (the donor) and nitrosonium ion (the acceptor).
[9] His research in organometallic chemistry emphasized the importance of electron-transfer processes and radical species as intermediates.
[10] Kochi received many awards for his research, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.