Gold Awards, each for 2 million yen (Rs 13 lakhs), were presented to Professor Yasushi Sekine and Professor Hideyuki Murakami, both of Waseda University
The TANAKA Memorial Foundation’s Representative Director, Hideya Okamoto, announced the recipients of the FY2020 Precious Metals Research Grants.
Following a rigorous screening process, the Gold Awards, each for 2 million yen (Rs 13 lakhs), was presented to Professor Yasushi Sekine and Professor Hideyuki Murakami, both of Waseda University. In addition, three Silver Awards, four Young Researcher Awards, and 17 Encouragement Awards were also granted.
The Silver Awardees and Young Researcher Awardees were presented with an amount of 1 million yen (Rs 6.6 lakhs) each, while the Encouragement Awardees received 300,000 yen (about Rs 2 lakhs) each.
While Professor Yasushi Sekine of Waseda University was presented the Gold Award for development and application of precious metal catalytic reactions with unconventional low-temperature action using surface protonics, Professor Hideyuki Murakami, also of Waseda University, received it for the development of an oxidation-resistant Ir-based high-entropy alloy.
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 22nd year, a total of 171 applications were received in a wide range of fields where precious metals can make contributions to the research and development of new technologies. A total of 16.1 million yen (around Rs 1 crore) in research grants was awarded for 26 projects. The grant amount is treated as a scholarship donation
Applications for the FY2021 research granted are scheduled to open in the fall.
