In this 25th year of the research grant, recipients will receive a total of 20 million yen in research grants, including the new Umekichi Tanaka Award of 10 million yen, which is the maximum amount offered. Named after company founder Umekichi Tanaka, who strove to expand industrial use of precious metals, the Umekichi Tanaka Award is offered this year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of these Precious Metals Research Grants. Names of the other awards were also changed with the aim of making the grant program more appealing.

Applications can be submitted using the application form on the TANAKA Memorial Foundation website ( https://tanaka-foundation.or.jp ), and, after strict examination, award recipients will be announced at the end of March 2024.

The TANAKA Memorial Foundation aims to contribute to the development and cultivation of new fields for precious metals and to the development of science, technology, and the social economy by conducting activities that enable more people to experience a prosperous society. This grant program aims to support a range of endeavors that can contribute toward creating a well-balanced and prosperous society even in the distant future.

Last year, two Gold Awards were presented. The first one was for "Modeling of precious metal extraction and separation using Moessbauer spectroscopy parameters and computational chemistry" to develop a computational method for predicting the solvent extraction equilibrium of precious metals. The second one was for "Experiments to achieve microstructure control of precious metal-based high-entropy alloys" to develop innovative metal materials aimed at creating strengthening mechanisms with high thermal stability through the use of microstructure control of precious metal-based high-entropy alloys using two-phase crystal structures and their orientation relationship.

Press Release: https://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/files/202309_EN.pdf