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Young Faculty:Associate Professor Hiroyuki Matuura

 

 

Young Faculty / 039

 

Associate Professor Hiroyuki Matsuura : Matsuura Lab, Department of Materials Engineering


<Biography>

March 2001: B.E., Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
March 2003: M.Sc., Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
March 2006: Ph.D., Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
April 2006-June 2007: Research Associate, Carnegie Mellon University
July 2007-August 2010: Assistant Professor, Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
August 2010-March 2012: Lecturer, Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
March 2012-September 2016: Associate Professor, Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
October 2016-Present: Associate Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

<About the Research>
Our society is based on the existence and use of various substances. Substances, which can be always supplied stably with constant quality upon the demand, are called materials. The stable supply of materials is the most important mission to support our industrial activities. In order to respond to this mission, we have been developing high-temperature processes that contribute to the stable supply of high-quality metals, one of the most important materials. Since Japan is heavily dependent on foreign countries for both resources and energy, resource and energy conservation has been a major motivation for research and development in Japan for a long time. Furthermore, the recent change in society's values, such as the sustainable development of society as a whole and the achievement of corporate social responsibility as represented by the SDGs, has led to an increasing demand for development from a different perspective. Since the high-temperature manufacturing process for steel and other metal materials is an energy-consuming process, we are working on the development of various processes and the pursuit of fundamental scientific principles to improve energy efficiency while maintaining higher material quality. In addition, we are reevaluating the by-products and wastes, which have been regarded as having no financial benefit in the past, and are engaged in activities that go beyond the conventional framework, such as the pursuit of utilization values at the elemental level and utilization in completely different fields.


<Future aspirations>
For example, the research topic about the utilization of steel slag generated by steel production in the ocean to contribute to the recovery of the ocean's desertification, or "isoyake," is a completely unfamiliar field for me. In such situation, I am always looking for opportunities to learn through interactions with people in various different fields, e.g. researchers specializing in marine environmental studies, company researchers, or people in the fishing industry. Although with the risk of sounding ostentatious, I would like to pursue my dream and collaborate with new people while keeping my researches centered on the foundation of my expertise in materials science and engineering, as “modern-day alchemist”.

<WEB>
Lab : http://www.pyro.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/