 It is estimated that the Manzanar Project has planted nearly one million mangrove trees on the coast of Eritrea since the project began.In a February 2007 National Geographic article, Sato was called a "maritime Johnny Appleseed".In 1982 Sato share Brandeis University's Rosenstiel Award with subsequent 1986 Nobel prize winners, biochemist Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi-Montalcini, and in 1984 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to cell biology.