DATE2025.10.29 #Awards & Prizes
Professor Nobuhiro Yanai Receives the Grand Prize of the 15th Frontier Salon Nagase Award
Professor Nobuhiro YANAI
Professor Nobuhiro Yanai of the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, has been selected as the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 15th Frontier Salon Nagase Award, presented by the Frontier Salon Foundation.
The Frontier Salon Nagase Award aims to discover “future Nobel laureates” by recognizing young researchers who are pioneering new scientific fields with creative ideas and contributing significantly to society through science and technology.
Professor Yanai received the award for his work entitled “Challenges of Chemists in the Quantum Era.”
Professor Yanai has made outstanding achievements in the field of photochemistry. In particular, his pioneering research on photon upconversion materials—which convert low-energy, long-wavelength light into higher-energy, shorter-wavelength light—has earned him international acclaim.
Recently, he has been addressing a fundamental question: What roles should chemistry and chemists play in the coming quantum era?
Recognizing that chemistry enables the precise design and synthesis of nanoscale molecular structures—and thus the control of the quantum states inherent in molecules—Professor Yanai has been exploring a new frontier of chemistry that bridges quantum science and life science. This emerging field, which he calls “Quantum-Bio-Chemistry,” envisions the use of molecular quantum control to realize quantum sensing of biological phenomena.
This award celebrates Professor Yanai’s visionary and pioneering contributions to expanding the horizons of chemistry, and we extend our heartfelt congratulations on this remarkable achievement.
Nagase Corporation Press Release
(Written by : Tatsuya Tsukuda Professor/ Head of Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science)