On March 2, 2026, Nagoya University held an award ceremony for the winners of the Akasaki Prize, an accolade bestowed upon promising young researchers at Nagoya University. Established in 2010, the Akasaki Prize is funded by a donation from the late Professor Isamu Akasaki, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the blue LED. This year, the prize was awarded to Ryoya Tanaka, lecturer in the Graduate School of Science, and Eisuke Yamamoto, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability.
The Akasaki Prize: A prize awarded to promising students and researchers under 35 at Nagoya University in the science or technology fields. The prize serves to showcase the high caliber of scientific and technological research conducted at the university.
Tanaka, who studies insect behavior, has examined the structure by which a certain fly presents a “gift” to females of the species as part of a mating ritual. In his research, he was able to induce the same behavior in a different species of fly. This finding could lead to the development of new pest control methods, eliminating the need for pesticides. At the ceremony, Tanaka expressed his hope to contribute to society through his research.
Assistant Professor Yamamoto, who researches nanosheets (two-dimensional materials) only a few atoms thick, developed a new synthesis technique using surfactants. By synthesizing non-layered inorganic compounds, which are considered difficult to make two-dimensional, he enabled a level of design precision by which thickness can be controlled to the nanometer. This achievement was highly praised in the field of materials science. Yamamoto spoke of an aesthetic drive that has guided his research to date: he wanted to create materials where all the atoms are neatly aligned. His new goal, he says, is to develop materials with high functionality for practical application.
At the award ceremony, President Sugiyama said, “I hope this year’s winners will go on to be as successful as Professor Akasaki himself,” expressing his high expectations for the awardees’ future careers.
