Nobel laureate & Plenary lectures

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014

Prize motivation:
"for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources"

Brief Biography:
Hiroshi AMANO received D.Eng from Nagoya University in 1989. Currently he is a Director, Center for Integrated Research of Future Electronics, and a Professor, Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability, Nagoya University. In 1985, he developed low-temperature deposited buffer layers which provided the technology vendors to the development of high-quality group III semiconductor based LEDs and LDs. In 1989, he succeeded in growing p-type GaN and fabricating p-n junction LEDs for the first time in the world. He has published more than 529 technical papers and contributed to 27 books. Awards received include: 1994 Optoelectronics Conference Special Award, 1996 IEEE/LEOS Engineering Achievement Award, 1998 Japan Society for Applied Physics C Award, 1998 Rank Award, 2001 Marubun Academic Award, 2002 Takeda Award, 2003 SSDM paper award, 2009 Fellow, Japan Society of Applied Physics, 2011 IOP Fellow, 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, Order of Culture, Japan, and 2015 NAE Foreign Membership.

Eiji Yashima received his BS, MS, and PhD (1988) from Osaka University. In 1986, he joined Kagoshima University. After a postdoc with David Tirrell at UMass (1988-1989), he moved to Nagoya University in 1991 and was promoted to a full Professor in 1998. He was the project leader of the ERATO Project (JST) on "Yashima Super-structured Helix" (2002-2007). He received the SPSJ Wiley Polymer Science Award in 2000, the Japan IBM Science Award in 2001, Molecular Chirality Award in 2005, Thomson Scientific Research Front Award in 2007, the Award of The Society of Polymer Science, Japan in 2008, Chirality Medal in 2013, and the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 2015. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, an associate member of the Science Council of Japan, and a senior program officer of Research Center for Science Systems (JSPS). He has published over 300 papers including 23 reviews and contributed to write 13 chapters in books. His current research interests are in the design and synthesis of helical molecules, supramolecules, and polymers with novel structures and functions.

Brief Biography:

Axel Hoffmann is currently the Senior Group Leader of the Magnetic Thin Film Group within the Materials Science Division at the Argonne National Laboratory. His research interests encompass a wide variety of magnetism related subjects, including basic properties of magnetic heterostructures, spin-transport in novel geometries, and biomedical applications of magnetism. His main research focus has recently been on pure spin currents investigated by magnetotransport and magnetization dynamic measurements. He has more than 100 publications, four book chapters, and three magnetism-related U.S. patents and he is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Physics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and IEEE. Furthermore, he was in 2011 a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Magnetics Society, received in 2015 the Outstanding Researcher Award by the Prairie Section of the American Vacuum Society and in 2016 was awarded a President’s International Fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Nobel Prize in chemistry 2010

Prize motivation:
"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"

Profile:
Dr. Suzuki's work on cross-coupling reactions of organic boron compounds in the presence of palladium as a catalyst and base presented in 1979- had a profound impact on a wide range of research. Catalytic chemistry, material sciences, and organic synthetic chemistry are fields that were affected, and the cross-coupling has become globally recognized as the "Suzuki coupling reaction."

Brief Biography:
C.N.R. Rao obtained his PhD degree from Purdue University (1958) and DSc degree from the University of Mysore (1961). He is the National Research Professor and Linus Pauling Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (both at Bangalore). His research interests are mainly in the chemistry of materials. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, London, Japan, French and Russian as well as other science academies and an honorary fellow of RSC. He is the recipient of the Einstein Gold Medal of UNESCO, the Hughes and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, the August Wilhelm von Hofmann medal of the German Chemical Society, the Dan David Prize and Trieste Science Prize for materials research and the first India Science Award. He has published 1600 research papers; authored and edited 50 books. He is the recipient of Bharat Ratna, highest civilian honour of India.

Brief Biographical Details

University of Melbourne School of Chemistry, Bio21 Institute (Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus, Professor of Chemistry);
Imperial College Department of Chemistry (Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow).

Andrew Holmes was Professor of Organic and Polymer Chemistry and Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis at the University of Cambridge. In 2004 he was awarded an ARC Federation Fellowship and Inaugural veski Innovation Fellowship at the Bio21 Institute in the University of Melbourne. He was a CSIRO Fellow, a University of Melbourne Laureate Professor, Distinguished Research Fellow at Imperial College and was the Newton Abraham Visiting Professor, University of Oxford in 2011-12. His research interests involve applications of synthesis to materials science and biology. He has made extensive contributions in the area of light emitting and photovoltaic devices. In May, 2000 he was elected FRS. He was elected FAA in March 2006 and FTSE in November 2006. He is President of the Australian Academy of Science. From 2000-2003 he was Chairman of the Editorial Board of Chemical Communications and he has been an Associate Editor of Organic Letters since April 2006.

Brief Biography:

Professor George Malliaras received a BS in Physics from the Aristotle University (Greece) in 1991, and a PhD in Mathematics and Physical Sciences, cum laude, from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) in 1995. After a two year postdoc at the IBM Almaden Research Center (California), he joined the faculty in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University (New York). From 2006 to 2009 he served as the Lester B. Knight Director of the Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility. He joined the Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne in 2009. His research on organic electronics and bioelectronics has been recognized with awards from the New York Academy of Sciences, the US National Science Foundation, and DuPont. He is a member of the Hellenic National Council for Research and Technology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and serves as an Associate Editor of Science Advances.