Sumio Iijima

Sumio Iijima (飯島 澄男, Iijima Sumio, born 2 May

1939) is a Japanese physicist and inventor, often cited Sumio Iijima
as the inventor of carbon nanotubes. Although carbon
nanotubes had been observed prior to his "invention",
Iijima's 1991 paper generated unprecedented interest in
the carbon nanostructures and has since fueled intense
research in the area of nanotechnology.

Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1939, Iijima graduated

with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1963 from
the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo. He
received a Master's degree in 1965 and completed his
Ph.D. in solid-state physics in 1968, both at Tohoku
University in Sendai. Iijima at Meijo University
Born 2 May 1939
Between 1970 and 1982 he performed research with
Koshigaya, Saitama, Japan
crystalline materials and high-resolution electron
microscopy at Arizona State University. He visited the Alma mater Tohoku University
University of Cambridge during 1979 to perform University of Electro-
studies on carbon materials. Communications
Known for High resolution electron
He worked for the Research Development Corporation microscope and Carbon
of Japan from 1982 to 1987, studying ultra-fine nanotubes
particles, after which he joined NEC Corporation
Awards See below
where he is still employed. He discovered carbon
nanotubes in 1991. When he discovered carbon Scientific career
nanotubes, he not only took pictures of them but he put Fields Nanotechnology
two together and explained what they really are. Institutions NEC Corporation
Afterwards, he was credited with the discovery.[1] He
Meijo University
is also a University Professor at Meijo University since
Nagoya University
1999. Furthermore, he is the Honorary AIST Fellow of
the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology, Distinguished Invited University Professor of Nagoya University.

He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics in 2002, "for the discovery and elucidation of
the atomic structure and helical character of multi-wall and single-wall carbon nanotubes, which have had
an enormous impact on the rapidly growing condensed matter and materials science field of nanoscale
science and electronics."
He is a foreign associate of National Academy of Sciences, foreign member of the Norwegian Academy
of Science and Letters.[2] He is also a Member of the Japan Academy.

Research fields
Nano Science, Crystallography, Electron Microscopy, Solid-State Physics, Materials Science

Professional record
1968 – 1974: Research Associate, Research Institute for Scientific Measurements, Tohoku
University, Sendai
1970 – 1977: Research Associate, Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe,
Arizona
1977 – 1982: Senior Research Associate, Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State
University, Tempe, Arizona
1979: Visiting Senior Scientist, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, University
of Cambridge, Cambridge
1982 – 1987: Group Leader, ERATO Program, Research Development Corporation of
Japan, Nagoya
1987 – Present: Senior Research Fellow, NEC Corporation, Tsukuba (Joined NEC in 1987
as Senior Principal Researcher)
1998 – 2002: Research Director, JST/ICORP "Nanotubulites" Project Tsukuba and Nagoya
1999 – Present: University Professor, Meijo University, Nagoya
2001 – 2015: Director, Nanotube Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba
2005 – 2012: Dean, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT,
http://saint.skku.edu), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea.
2006 – 2009: Project Leader, NEDO “Carbon Nanotube Capacitor Development Project”[3]
2007 – Present: Distinguished University Professor of Nagoya University, Nagoya
2008 – 2012: Distinguished Invited Chair Professor for World Class University (WCU)
Program, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea.
2015 – Present: Honorary AIST Fellow, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology (AIST)

Academy
2007: Foreign Associate, The National Academy of Sciences
2009: Foreign Member, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[4]
2010: Member, The Japan Academy
 2011: Foreign Fellow, Chinese Academy of Science

Recognition

Honors
2000: Fellow, The American Physical Society
2001: Honorary Fellowship, Royal Microscopical Society
2002: Honorary Doctor, University of Antwerp
2002: Honorary Member, The Crystallographic Society of Japan
2003: Honorary Doctor, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL)
2004: Honorary Member, The Japanese Society of Microscopy
2005: Honorary Professor, Xi’an Jiaotong University
2005: Honorary Professor, Peking University
2007: Fellow, The Japan Society of Applied Physics
2009: Fellow, The Microscopy Society of America
2009: Honorary Member, The Chemical Society of Japan
2009: Honorary Professor, Tsinghua University
2009: Distinguished Professor, The University of Electro-Communications
2010: Honorary Professor, Zhejiang University
2010: Honorary Professor, Southeast University
2014: Honorary Doctor, Aalto University

Major awards
1976: Bertram Eugene Warren Diffraction Physics Award, (The American Crystallography
Society)
1985: Nishina Memorial Award, (The Nishina Memorial Foundation)
1996: Asahi Prize, (The Asahi Shinbun Cultural Foundation)
2002: Agilent EuroPhysics Prize, (European Physical Society)
2002: James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials, (American Physical Society)
2002: Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, (The Franklin Institute)
2002: Japan Academy Award and Imperial Award, (The Japan Academy)
2003: Person of Cultural Merit, Japan
2007: Gregori Aminoff Prize in crystallography 2007, (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
2007: Fujihara Award, (The Fujihara Foundation of Science)
2007: Balzan Prize for Nanoscience 2007
2008: The Kavli Prize Nanoscience 2008 (The Kavli Foundation)
2008: The Prince of Asturias Award for Technical Scientific Research 2008, (The Prince of
Asturias Foundation)
2009: Order of Culture, Japan[5]
2015: European Inventor Award (European Patent Office, Germany)
2017: Sir C. V. Raman Visiting Professorship award for CNT (University of Madras, Chennai,
India) during 6–13 March 2017.
 and others

References
1. Iijima, Sumio (1991), "Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon", Nature, 354 (6348): 56–58,
Bibcode:1991Natur.354...56I (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1991Natur.354...56I),
doi:10.1038/354056a0 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F354056a0), S2CID 4302490 (https://api.s
emanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4302490)
2. "Gruppe 2: Fysikkfag (herunder astronomi, fysikk og geofysikk)" (http://www.dnva.no/c2684
9/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40118) (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Retrieved 7 October 2010.
3. Hata, Kenji (2016). "A super-growth method for single-walled carbon nanotube synthesis: —
Development of a mass production technique for industrial application —" (https://doi.org/10.
5571%2Fsyntheng.9.3_167). Synthesiology English Edition. 9 (3): 167–179.
doi:10.5571/syntheng.9.3_167 (https://doi.org/10.5571%2Fsyntheng.9.3_167).
4. "Gruppe 2: Fysikkfag (herunder astronomi, fysikk og geofysikk)" (http://www.dnva.no/c2684
9/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40118) (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Retrieved 7 October 2010.
5. "Emperor awards decoration to Russian Japanese art expert," (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnne
ws/news/20091104p2a00m0na008000c.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200911
07083445/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091104p2a00m0na008000c.html) 7
November 2009 at the Wayback Machine Mainichi Shimbun. 4 November 2009.

External links
"About Myself" – NEC's page about Dr. Sumio Iijima (https://web.archive.org/web/20110907
164859/http://www.nec.co.jp/rd/en/innovative/cnt/myself.html)
"Nanotubulites" – about Dr. Sumio Iijima (https://web.archive.org/web/20040623083053/htt
p://nanocarb.meijo-u.ac.jp/jst/iijima.html)
Nanotubes: The Materials of the 21st Century – video presentation by Sumio Iijima (http://ar
quivo.pt/wayback/20091007050851/http%3A//vega.org.uk/video/real/71)
Arizona State University story on Kavli Prize (http://clas.asu.edu/newsevents/newsreleases/
2008/20080630_kavli.htm)

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