Professor Naoya Shibata, Institute of Engineering Innovation, received a JSPS Prize

On 27th December 2018, Professor Naoya Shibata, Institute of Engineering Innovation, received a JSPS Prize.

JSPS Prize is established to recognize and support young researchers with rich creativity and superlative research ability at an early stage in their careers, in order to raise the level of scientific research in Japan to the world's highest standard.

<About awarded research>

Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) with atomic resolution is an indispensable analytical technique in materials and device development. In this research, we succeeded in the world's first visualization of atomic level electric field by advanced STEM to the utmost limit. This made direct observation of the local electric field inside the atom possible. This result is a great leap forward to STEM from a method of observing atoms to a method that enables observation of intra- and inter-atomic structures. In addition, this method is effective for the observation of the local magnetic field inside material, and has a great far-reaching effect in the field of various materials and device development.

<Comments>

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Yuichi Ikuhara, all members of our laboratory and all collaborators of this research. I would like to deeply thank Prof., Director General Takayuki Terai and other professors of Institute of Engineering Innovation for giving me great encouragement and support for my research. I would like to continuously challenge the forefront of electron microscopy and materials science.