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Awards Presentation and Plenary Session

• 2012 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit

• April 9-13, 2012
• Moscone West Convention Center | Marriott Marquis - San Francisco, California-
• Meeting Chairs: Lara A. Estroff, Jun Liu, Kornelius Nielsch, Kazumi Wada

Koichi Kitazawa - Japan Science and Technology Agency

Wednesday, April 11
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Marriott Marquis, Yerba Buena Level, Salon 7 

Koichi Kitazawa (view biography)
Japan Science and Technology Agency 

Talk Presentation (view abstract)
Fukushima and the Role of Nanotechnology Research in Japan 

 

Programming Change

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the original Plenary speaker for the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting, Sir John Pendry, Imperial College London, will be unable to attend.  In his place, Koichi Kitazawa - Japan Science and Technology Agency (who was originally scheduled to give the Symposium X talk on Wednesday, April 11) will now present the Plenary address. 

Awards Presentation

Prior to the Plenary Talk by Koichi Kitazawa, the following MRS Awards will be presented:

• Outstanding Young Investigator 
• Innovation in Materials Characterization 
• Mid-Career Researcher Award 
• Graduate Student Awards 

Koichi Kitazawa Biography

Koichi Kitazawa received his Doctor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. Formerly a professor at the University of Tokyo, he has also served as the president of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and as vice president of Japan Science and Technology Corporation. He has been the counselor to the president of JST since October, 2011. His areas of specialization include physicochemistry, solid-state physics, materials science, magnetic science, superconductivity, and energy science.  

Fukushima and Role of Nano-Technology Research in Japan

Game changing technology for safe energy sources and for energy saving---awaited especially at this moment in Japan for the sustainability of the world. Japanese government, because of the unfortunate nuclear incidence on March 11, 2011, has announced that a few percent of her land in the eastern part needs the decontamination of the surface soil in order to keep the level of radioactivity lower than the allowable value. The government has announced that it will follow a policy to decrease the level of dependency of her energy on nuclear energy. It is, hence, desperately needed in Japan to find novel energy sources and novel routs for substantial energy saving as soon as possible. The key technologies to lead to change the game should be related with the energy efficiency of solar cells, low cost fabrication processes of the cell, typhoon- and thunderstorm-resistant efficient wind turbines, highly efficient ''smart city” and ''smart grids”, larger scale(>MWh) electric energy storage system, EV and plug-in-hybrid automobile, high efficiency electric generation, smart house, efficient photo-synthesis chemical process, bio-mass revolution, etc. The most exciting change seems to emerge from nano-technology approach. In order for the fruitful R&D to be achieved an approach “problem-solving basic research strategy” will be discussed in terms of the significance of the strategy relative to curiosity-driven research approach