Past Leo Esaki Prize winners

*Affiliation titles at the time of award

2004/1st

"Pioneering Studies on Semiconductor Nanoelectronics Devices Including Seminal Research Contributions to Advanced Devices Based on Quantum Wire and Quantum Dot Structures"

Dr. Hiroyuki Sakaki
Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo

Dr. Yasuhiko Arakawa
Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo

2005/2nd

"Cell Sheet Engineering Produced by Molecular Design of the Nano-Biointerface"

Dr. Teruo Okano
Director/Professor, Institute of Advanced BioMedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University

2006/3rd

"Theoretical Study of Electronic Properties of Quantum Nanostructures"

Dr. Tsuneya Ando
Professor, Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2007/4th

"Development of Artificial Atoms and Molecules and Challenging Work for Quantum Computing"

Dr. Seigo Tarucha
Professor, Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering/Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo

2008/5th

"Pioneering study on surface as nano-materials' phases"

Dr. KunioTakayanagi
Professor, Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2009/6th

"World-Foremost Study on Photonic Crystals controlled in Nanometer-Scale"

Dr. Susumu Noda
Professor, Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University

2010/7th

"Pioneering the use of self-assembly to engineer the nanoscopic structure of matter"

Dr. Makoto Fujita
Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering the University of Tokyo

2011/8th

"Near-field Nano-optics and Plasmonics"

Dr. Satoshi Kawata
Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
Chief Scientist, Nanophotonics Laboratory, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute

2012/9th

"Supermolecular Nanostructures as Drug and Gene Carriers for Targeting Therapy of Instractable Diseases"

Dr. Kazunori Kataoka
Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, the University of Tokyo

2013/10th

"Pioneering and Developing Studies on Novel Porous Materials"

Dr. Susumu Kitagawa
Director/Professor, Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University

2014/11th

"Pioneering of the superconducting quantum bit system"

Dr. Jaw-Shen Tsai
Team Leader, Center for Emergent Matter Science, RIKEN

Dr. Yasunobu Nakamura
Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo
Team Leader, Center for Emergent Matter Science, RIKEN

2015/12th

"Mesoscale Structural Control of Organic Materials and New Functions"

Dr. Takuzo Aida
Professor, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Deputy Director, Center for Emergent Matter Science, RIKEN

2016/13th

"Pioneering Studies on Electrical Control of Spins and its Device Applications in Ferromagnetic Materials"

Dr. Hideo Ohno
Professor, Director, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University

2017/14th

"Invention and realization of high-precision optical lattice clocks"

Dr. Hidetoshi Katori
Professor, Departoment of Applied Physics, Graduate Scool of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Chief Scientist, Quantum Metrology Laboratory, RIKEN

2018/15th

"Pioneering work on the physics of quantum nanostructures by using terahertz techonologies"

Dr. Kazuhiko Hirakawa
Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

2019/16th

“Pioneering work on organic semiconductor electronics with elasticity and biocompatibility”

Dr. Takao Someya

Professor, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Chief Scientist, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research

Team Leader, RIKEN The Center for Emergent Matter Science

2020/17th

“Pioneering work on the electrical control of nuclear spins in semiconductor nanostructures and possible application to quantum information technology”

Dr. Yoshiro Hirayama

Professor, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

Director, Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics, Tohoku University

Section Manager, Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute, QST

2021/18th

“Theory of electronic structure and resonant Raman spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes”

Dr. Riichiro Saito

Professor, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

2022/19th

“Leading research on preparation of cellulose nanofibers and control of their surface-nanostructures”

Dr. Akira Isogai

Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo