Following a rigorous screening process, the Umekichi Tanaka Award, for 10 million yen, was presented to Professor Haruichi Kanaya of Kyushu University, and the Gold Award, for 2 million yen, was presented to Professor Seiji Ogo of Kyushu University. In addition, one research project received the Silver Award, and three Young Researcher Awards were presented.

The TANAKA Memorial Foundation undertakes programs designed to foster developments in new precious metal fields while contributing to the advancement of science, technology, and socio-economics for the overall enrichment of society. The research grant program was launched in FY1999 and has continued each year since with the goal of supporting the various challenges of the “new world opened up by precious metals.” This year, the program’s 25th year, the Umekichi Tanaka Award was established in honor of the founder, Umekichi Tanaka, who was instrumental in expanding the industrial use of precious metals, and researchers were invited to apply for the program in a wide range of fields where precious metals can make contributions to the research and development of new technologies, and research and development can be applied to precious metals. As a result, a total of 210 applications were received, and a total of 19 research grants of 19.9 million yen was awarded.

The names of the recipients of the Umekichi Tanaka Award and Gold Award, their research, and the reasons for their selection are below.

Umekichi Tanaka Award

Professor Haruichi Kanaya of Kyushu University

Research on bonding wire with electromagnetic wave shielding function

This research engages in development to make it possible to use bonding wire in the high-frequency band, which was not previous possible, by coating the surface of bonding wire with a magnetic thin film containing precious metals. It is an extremely groundbreaking advancement that further applies the unprecedented phenomenon of magnetic thin films under study. It is expected to be applied to general electric wires, and the great potential for the expansion of precious metals into new material fields was also highly rated.

Gold Award

Professor Seiji Ogo of Kyushu University

Development of precious metal hydrogen energy electron carriers

This research seeks to create a single hydrogen-derived electron (precious metal complex) that can extract electrons from hydrogen under mild conditions and directly use the electrons when needed, as an unprecedented concept. It was highly rated not only as innovative energy carriers for the realization of carbon neutrality, but also as a potential for direct use in various catalytic reactions.

One Silver Award, three Young Researcher Awards, and 13 TANAKA Special Awards were also granted.

Press release: https://acnnewswire.com/press-release/english/89915/