The UK’s Oxford Instruments plc has announced associate professor Michihisa Yamamoto of the University of Tokyo’s Quantum-Phase Electronic Center (QPEC) and of the Center of Emergent Matters at Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) as the winner of the 2017 Sir Martin Wood Prize.
Yamamoto was awarded the prize for his work on the ‘Control and detection of quantum phase in semiconductor nanostructures’. This involved detecting and controlling quantum interference effects of travelling electron waves in nano-structures, opening a path to ‘Quantum Electron Wave Technology’.
Yamamoto was awarded with the medal, certificate and a cash prize of ¥500,000 at the British Embassy in Tokyo by British ambassador Paul Madden on 10 November and gave a lecture on his work at the 2017 Millennium Science Forum organised by Oxford Instruments and chaired by professor Maki Kawai, director general of the Institute for Molecular Science. Guest speakers at the event were professor Eleanor Campbell from Edinburgh and Griff Jones, head of Science, Innovation and Global Challenges at the British Embassy in Tokyo.
The Millennium Science Forum was established in 1998 to promote scientific exchange between Britain and Japan and award the Sir Martin Wood Prize to a young researcher from a Japanese university or research institute, who has performed outstanding research in the area of condensed matter science. The prize is named after Sir Martin Wood, founder & honorary president of Oxford Instruments plc.
The selection committee consists of eight senior professors from Japanese universities and is chaired by professor Hidetoshi Fukuyama of Tokyo University of Science.
The winner of the Sir Martin Wood Prize receives ¥500,000 in cash and the opportunity to give a series of lectures in UK and EU Universities, including Oxford University.