Tadafumi Adschiri (Tohoku University)

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Tadafumi Adschiri - Professor of the Advanced Institute for Materials Research - received the title of Honoris Causa on the 21st May 2019.

Photo : Tadafumi Adschiri © Tohoku University
Tadafumi Adschiri © Tohoku University

Professor Tadafumi Adschiri is one of only five distinguished professors of Tohoku University selected to join the World Premier Research Centre Initiative - Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR). He also directs a major national project "Super Hybrid Nanomaterials" which aims at developing hybrid organic-inorganic materials using supercritical fluid technology.

Research, collaboration, distinctions

Professor Adschiri graduated from the University of Tokyo (1981) and obtained his Doctorate degree in chemical engineering in 1986. He joined Tohoku University in 1989 and initiated the study of chemical reactions in supercritical fluids, including biomass conversion, waste recycling, new organic reactions and material synthesis. He is the inventor of the "supercritical hydrothermal synthesis" for nanomaterials. 

On the basis of his internationally recognised research on supercritical fluids and solvothermal/hydrothermal reactions, Tadafumi Adschiri has developed a close relationship with the University of Bordeaux for more than 25 years, and in particular with Gérard Demazeau (1943 - 2017), specialist in high pressure science and technology at ICMCB. In 2006, the International Solvothermal and Hydrothermal Association (ISHA) was created, and the first Congress was held in Sendai. Prof. Demazeau was appointed President of ISHA, and Prof. Adschiri the Executive Secretary. The same year, Tadafumi Adschiri organised the International Symposium on supercritical fluids in Kyoto. It was on this occasion that he met Cyril Aymonier, Senior CNRS researcher at the Institute for Solid State Chemistry Bordeaux (ICMB), restoring a new impetus to his collaboration with the University of Bordeaux.

A new international research stragetgy is now emerging in the field of materials science and chemical engineering, in the context of a circular economy between Japan, the United States and France. It will enable the realization of high level research and the organisation of scientific events. In addition to the publication of joint results, this collaboration also contributes to the training of students and young researchers.

Tadafumi Adschiri has won numerous awards and prizes for his outstanding research, including awards from the Chemical Society of Japan, Society of Chemical Engineering of Japan, the honorable Japan Invention Award and a three-time winner of the Minister’s awards of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). This exceptional career has earned him many distinctions including one of the most prestigious in Japan, the appointment to the Science Council of Japan (SCJ).

The DHC for Prof. Adschiri was proposed by Prof. Cyril Aymonier, Senior CNRS researcher at the Institute for Solid State Chemistry Bordeaux (ICMB).