AWARDS

Professor Kobayashi's Scientific Achievements

Professor Hayao Kobayashi of Department of Molecular Assemblies received the Divisional (Physical Chemistry) Award of the Chemical Society of Japan in 1997 for his contributions on "Design and Development of Molecular Metals and Superconductors".

He has clarified the nature of several molecular conductors with a view of "molecular design and analysis on structural chemistry" based on the tight-binding band structure and produced many two-dimensional pi-metal system and superconductors. He has also clarified the existence of the molecular metal with the pi-d hybridized metal band and developed the stable p-molecular metals involving the magnetic moment. He has always led the research of molecular conductors which expands its activities to the discovery of organic and transition metal complex superconductors, the design and development of stable two-dimensional systems, the molecular conductors based on the p-d electron system and molecular magnetic metals.

Professor Nishi's Scientific Achievements

Professor Nobuyuki Nishi of Department of Applied Molecular Science received the Divisional (Physical Chemistry) Award of the Chemical Society of Japan in 1997 for his contribution to "Studies of Characteristics of Molecular Clusters Directly Isolated from Liquid Droplets with a Newly Developed Adiabatic Expansion Technique".

His scientific achievements relevant to the award are summarized in the following.

  1. Development of a method of isolating clusters directly from liquid through adiabatic expansion of liquid droplets into a vacuum. With mass spectrometric analysis of the isolated clusters, he has studied association of solutes and solvents in liquids at a molecular level.
  2. Studies of hydrophobic hydrations and hydrophobic interactions of carboxylic acids. He has proved that dimerization or polymerization of aliphatic carboxylic acids in aqueous solutions is mainly due to hydrophobic interactions between the alkyl groups.
  3. Investigations of hydrogen-bonding cluster formation and hydrophobic solute association in aqueous solution of ethanol. He has demonstrated that the addition of a small amount of ethanol in water causes drastic destruction of the network structure of the water molecules.
  4. Studies of structure of clusters in ethanol­water binary solutions through X-ray diffraction measurements of the intact solutions in addition to the mass spectrometric analysis of the isolated clusters.

Professor Obi's Scientific Achievements

Prof. Kinichi Obi (Visiting Professor from Tokyo Institute of Technology) of Department of Electronic Structure received the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 1997 for his contributions to "Studies on Photochemical Reaction Dynamics Initiated by Laser Excitation".

His main scientific contributions are summarized in the following.

  1. Electronic structure and dynamical behavior in excited states. He succeeded to combine the pump-probe technique with thermal lensing spectroscopy. This method opened a new route for the quantitative study of photochemical processes via highly excited triplet states. He developed a new technique generating supersonic beams of molecular radicals with a beam source coupled with mercury photosensitization, laser photolysis, and pulse discharge. With this method, he performed excellent spectroscopic studies on SiH2 and GeH2.
  2. Photochemical processes studied by probing spin polarization. He demonstrated that the spin quantum numbers of the molecular pairs in excited triplet states are conserved during triplet-triplet energy transfer processes and triplet de-excitation by radical species. He also found the generation of radicals with anomalously large spin polarization in the process of enhanced intersystem crossings of counterpart excited molecules.

Mr. Kato's Technological Achievements

Mr. Kiyonori Kato, the chief of the technical section of Molecular Materials Development Center, received the Award of the Technological Development in Chemistry for 1996.

This Award is made every year by the Chemical Society of Japan to a person who has contributed to the development or improvement of the experimental technique in chemistry or chemical engineering. Mr. Kiyonori Kato is recognized for his contribution to "Development and Popularization of Low-Temperature Technique". Mr. Kato developed the following system and devices for the non-expert liquid helium users: (1) the computer-controlled liquid helium transfer system, (2) the dynamic seal for the transfer tube, (3) the liquid helium level meter. All of these devices made the handling of liquid helium quite easy and safe. These system and devices has been exported not only to the institutions within Japan but also to abroad. Mr. Kato developed a system to regulate the temperature between 3 K and 0.5 K by controlling the vapor pressure of helium as well. This low-temperature regulation system was applied for the instrument to detect the quantum oscillation of the resistivity.

Dr. Nagasawa's Scientific Achievements

The 13th Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists in 1996 was given to Dr. Yutaka Nagasawa, who was a graduate student studying in the Department of the Electronic Structure.

This award is given to young scientists (under 35 years old) who obtained remarkable results during their Ph.D. work in the fields of basic science, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and agriculture. Dr. Nagasawa was awarded this prize for his Ph.D. thesis, "Studies on a New Type of Electron Transfer Faster than Solvation Process".

back to CONTENTS of Annual Review 1997