Organization & Management

Top Management

AIMR runs a top-down organizational management in which the Director has the authority for decision making without involving any faculty council. Such a simple system contributes to the creation of an environment where researchers can dedicate themselves to their research and serves as the management foundation of AIMR, one of the world’s top institute for materials science research.

In order to facilitate such a management system, it is indispensable that the Director and Principal Investigators (PI) share the same understanding on the management policies of the institute, in addition to the Director’s strong leadership demonstration. Information is shared at PI Meetings to promote active discussions if deemed necessary by the Director. All meetings are managed under international standards and held in English in order to include international researchers in the discussions.

Director

Majored in materials engineering and materials chemistry, Professor Shin-ichi Orimo has outstanding skill in energy materials research and won many awards in and outside Japan, including the Commendation for Science and Technology (Research Category) by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2012) and the Science of Hydrogen & Energy Award (2015). Since 2018, he has been acting as a Principal Investigator of “Hydrogenomics,” an academic domain related to front-line hydrogen science, which was a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area) sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

In addition, Professor Orimo is an international researcher and has conducted research at the Max Planck Society in Germany as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He also possesses adequate experiences in university operations. From 2012 to 2014, he served as a special advisor to the president and is a member of the Provost Office, Tohoku University since 2018. He has also been contributing to the development of science and technology in Japan as chairman of “The 190th Committee on Hydrogen Function Analyses in Materials,” one of the university-industry cooperative research committees of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2015–present), and as chairman of the first sub-committee (2015–2017) and board member of the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials (2017–2019).

At AIMR, Professor Orimo was appointed Principal Investigator in 2013, Leader of the Device/System Group in April 2017, Deputy Director in November 2018 and took office as Director of AIMR in October 2019.

Deputy Director

Professor Tomoki Ozawa specializes in theoretical research in condensed matter physics and AMO (atomic, molecular, and optical) physics, and has done outstanding work in the fields of topological condensed matter theory and quantum simulations using quantum materials in particular. He collaborates proactively with experimental physicists and is involved in a wide range of research activities, from mathematical and theoretical research to theoretical proposals for experiments and analysis of experimental results.

Professor Ozawa has extensive international experience. After receiving his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012, he spent several years as a researcher in Europe, mostly in Italy, before returning to Japan in 2018. He joined AIMR in 2020, launching a research lab as a Junior Principal Investigator under the LEADER program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). He has been a Principal Investigator since 2024. Since joining AIMR, he has received numerous awards, including the Young Scientists’ Award from the MEXT (2021), the Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (2023), the Marubun Research Encouragement Award (2024), and the Teruo Hiruma Optical Science Award (2024). His research has been highly acclaimed both in Japan and internationally.

As a theoretical physicist, he aims to act as a bridge between mathematicians and materials scientists. Coordinating closely with the director of the institute, he works to further develop and strengthen the framework that AIMR has built for collaboration between mathematics and the materials science, and promotes cutting-edge research.

Director, Research Support Division

Specially Appointed Professor Maki Suemitsu, from the time of completing the doctoral program (Department of Electronic Engineering) in the School of Engineering, Tohoku University in March 1980, up until his retirement as Professor in the Research Institute of Electrical Communication in March 2018, has devoted his studies to semiconductor thin-film engineering in the University. Developing a Group–IV gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE) method, he was first in the world to achieve epitaxial growth of graphene on a silicon substrate. For such accomplishments, he was chosen as a Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) Fellow in 2017 and as an Emeritus Member in 2022. After retiring, he carried on industry-academia collaboration and outreach activities as Specially Appointed Professor in the University. For three years starting from the 2020 academic year, he served as President of Miyagi Gakuin Women's University, as he has continued to be deeply involved in university administration.

Specially Appointed Professor Suemitsu, drawing on this wealth of experience in both research and administration, is helping to accelerate “the creation of new materials through collaboration between mathematics and materials science” at AIMR, while working to strengthen the research support programs and providing support for the Director to promote AIMR’s further advancement as a world premier international research center.

Deputy Director, Research Support Division

Associate Professor Kazuto Akagi is a specialist in computational materials science. Since joining AIMR, he has focused in particular on pursuing the potential of topological data analysis (TDA), a field pioneered by fellow mathematicians under the WPI (World Premier International Research Center Initiative) Program.

Associate Professor Akagi is participating as a representative of the TDA Group in the Material Research by Information Integration Initiative (MI²I) launched by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), a pioneering R&D project on data-driven materials development in Japan, and the Cabinet Office Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) . Since 2021 he has also hosted a community with its secretariat in AIMR, carrying on public awareness initiatives aimed at companies in the materials industry with an interest in introducing TDA.

Associate Professor Akagi has worked with mathematicians and materials scientists on a wide range of subjects from functional materials to structural materials. Drawing on this experience, he is intent on devoting his ingenuity and efforts to further the cause of collaboration between mathematics and materials science in AIMR.

Mr. Toshiyuki Hachiya, Deputy Director of the Research Support Division, is responsible for the management of a wide range of administrative functions at AIMR, including general affairs, human resources, accounting, research promotion, and international collaborations.

He joined the staff at Tohoku University in 1994, gaining experience at the Tohoku University Administration Bureau in general affairs-related operations that govern the management of the university as a whole. Moreover, he was also involved in support functions that were closely related to researchers, such as the promotion of research and industry-academia collaborations. Through these experiences, he has further deepened his understanding of the important role played by AIMR, which facilitates even further advances in materials science, a field where Tohoku University traditionally has strengths.

Going forward, in order for AIMR to be a driving force not only behind the research capabilities of Tohoku University overall, but also in the field of materials science around the world, Mr. Hachiya is devoting his efforts under the top-down management of the Director and Deputy Director of the Research Support Division to build an environment where researchers can feel assured of being able to concentrate on their research.