Kazuhito Hashimoto is currently the president of the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba. He is also a professor at the Policy Alternatives Research Institute, University of Tokyo (UT). After he received his BS and MS degrees in chemistry from UT, he obtained a research position at the Institute for Molecular Science in 1980. Hashimoto obtained his ScD from UT in 1985. He joined the faculty at UT in 1991, where he went on to start a research laboratory in 1997.
His research interests are widely spread in very broad area including photocatalysis, microbial electron transfer, functionalized magnetic materials, artificial photosynthesis, and polymer photovoltaics. His contributions to science are described in more than 650 peer-reviewed papers. Hashimoto received many awards, including the Japan Prime Minister Award for Academia-Industry Corporation in 2004, the Imperial Award for Invention in 2006, and The Chemical Society of Japan Award in 2012. Now he is contributing to science policy making of Japan’s government as an executive member of Council for Science, Technology & Innovation (Cabinet Office of Japan Government). He is also a member of Science Council of Japan.
