Sumio Iijima

Sumio Iijima (饭 岛 澄 男Japanese, Sumio Iijima, born 2 May 1939) is a Japanese physicist, known for the discovery of the carbon nanotube in 1991.

Iijima graduated 1963, the University of Electro - Communications Technology in Chofu, Tokyo Prefecture with a bachelor's degree. He received his doctorate in the field of solid state physics in 1968 at the Tohoku University in Sendai.

In the years 1970-1982 he studied at Arizona State University with crystalline materials and high-resolution electron microscopy. In between, he attended the University of Cambridge in 1979 to conduct research on carbon-based materials. He worked from 1982 to 1987 in Japan for the Research Development Corporation, where he worked with nanoparticles. He then entered the service of NEC, where he is still employed today. In addition, he holds since 1999 a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya. Today he is president at the research center for new carbon-based materials from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology ( AIST ).

Iijima discovered in 1991 while working for NEC by chance, the carbon nanotubes. He was the Benjamin Franklin Medal awarded for Physics in 2002 "for the discovery and elucidation of the atomic structure and helical character of multi- and single-walled carbon nanotubes, which have a tremendous impact on the rapidly growing fields of materials science, nanoscience and electronics. "

Sumio Iijima was " for his discovery of carbon nanotubes, especially single-walled carbon nanotubes and the study of their properties" of the awarded one million Swiss francs doped Balzan Prize in 2007. Also in 2007 he was awarded the Gregori Aminoff - Prize, the 2008 Kavli Prize.