Kyudai News No26 page 26/28

Description:
Kyudai News No26

Professor Emeritus Toyoki Kunitake (currentlyPresident of the Kitakyushu Foundation for theAdvancement of Industry, Science and Technology)was selected to receive the 2014 Order of Culture.After successfully completing the master’s programat this university’s Graduate School of Engineering,Professor Emeritus Kunitake completed the doctoralprogram at the University of Pennsylvania’sDepartment of Chemistry. He then spent time as apostdoctoral researcher at the California Institute ofTechnology before being hired as an assistantprofessor in the School of Engineering at KyushuUniversity in October 1963. In April 1974, he waspromoted to professor and served as Dean of theSchool of Engineering from April 1992 until March1994, in which role he was involved in the running ofeducation, research, and management. In 1999, hewas conferred with the title of Professor Emeritus ofthis university and is currently the Visiting Professorat the International Institute for Carbon-NeutralEnergy Research (I2CNER).Professor Emeritus Kunitake’s main researchachievements include pioneering work in the field ofmolecular architecture - the most important realm inmodern chemistry - such as being the first in theworld to discover the for mation of a stable bilayermembrane from an artificially created substanceunrelated to a biological lipid, when investigatingbimolecular aggregates, which are the basicstructure of biomembranes and were conventionallythought to be obtained solely from biological lipidswith a special structure. In addition, he has made atremendous contribution to the advancement ofmolecular architecture, through efforts to pioneernew techniques for forming new materials withmolecular organizations. More recently, he was thefirst to create the long-awaited self-supportingnano-thin film. It is hoped that this will find uses asan advanced separation membrane and as a pr otonexchange membrane in fuel cells.The Highly Cited Researchers 2014 selected byThomson Reuters have been announced andProfessor Toshihiko Takemura who was AssociateProfessor at that time of the Research Institute forApplied Mechanics has been selected as a highlycited researcher in the field of geosciences. TheHighly Cited Researchers list is compiled by theglobal information services company ThompsonReuters, based on an analysis of its own databasefor analyzing trends in academic papers. In therecently published list, published papers andcitation data for the 11-year period from 2002 to2012 were examined and researchers who havepublished at least a certain number of highly citedpapers space ? papers with a ver y high impact thatrank in the top 1% by citations for field ? wer eselected as “the World’s Most Influential ScientificMinds.”On Friday, October 31, 2014, Professor Takemurareceived an official Certificate of Highly CitedResearchers from Executive Vice PresidentWakayama at SHIIKI HALL.Professor Takemura is engaged in researchprimarily focused on evaluating the impact onclimate from aerosols*, which are airborneparticulates. In addition, he actively distributesinformation such as projections of future climatechange, as well as posting weekly aerosol forecastson his own.* Aerosols: Microscopic liquid or solid par ticlessuspended in a gas, such as PM2.5.Professor EmeritusToyoki Kunitake Awarded the2014 Order of CultureProfessorToshihiko Takemura Selected byThomson Reuters as One of its HighlyCited Researchers 2014Professor Emeritus Toyoki Kunitake at the commemorative lectureProfessor Takemura (left)and Executive Vice President Wakayama (right)Topics25 Kyudai News No.26