On November 3, 2017, it was decided that President Akira Fujishima will receive the 2017 Order of Cultural Merit.
The Order of Cultural Merit is a decoration that is given to people who have shown significant achievements in the development of culture in Japan.
After graduating in 1966 from Yokohama National University, President Fujishima earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1971. After serving as a lecturer in Engineering at Kanagawa University, and then lecturer, assistant professor and professor in Engineering at the University of Tokyo, Fujishima was appointed as President of Tokyo University of Science in January 2010, where he still remains today. Fujishima has received numerous awards, including the Asahi Prize, Chemical Society of Japan Award, Medal with Purple Ribbon, Japan Prize and Japan Academy Prize, and was selected as a person of cultural merit in 2010.
President Fujishima specializes in photo-electrochemistry and functional materials, and is known for the "Honda-Fujishima effect," concerning photolysis of water based on titanium oxide and platinum. Today, photocatalyst technology based on this discovery is used in air purification, water purification, antifouling/defogging, antibacterial/sterilization, etc.
TUS Research Highlights of President Fujishima
http://www.tus.ac.jp/en/initiatives/vol01/
