2023 Special Award for Tokyo Tech Advanced Researchers Decided

Band structures are used to describe electrons in materials quantum-mechanically. Recently a new class of materials called topological materials, which focuses on the topological properties of electronic bands, has gained traction in research. Among topological materials, those known as topological semimetals, with a band gap closed at one point, have been discovered to have a low-energy band structure, a concept first proposed in particle physics. Topological semimetals were fabricated into very thin films of high quality using a technique known as molecular beam epitaxy, and the electron conduction phenomena are being studied. In this study, we hope to look into unusual conduction phenomena that arise from this point and connect them to future electronics applications.

Age life expectancy of the human population has increased significantly over the past 200 years. However, healthy life expectancy, which is defined as the period during which people can live without being restricted by health problems, is shorter than the average life expectancy, with a gap of about 10 years in Japan. From this perspective, I believe that there is a need to develop science and medical technology that will lay the groundwork for people to lead richer lives, not only by extending average life expectancy but also by extending healthy life expectancy and improving quality of life. My research focuses on ventricular assist devices used in the treatment of patients with severe heart failure, with the goal of integrating humans and machines to realize medical technology that enables people to live like healthy people even in the event of illness. Since conventional ventricular assist devices generate a continuous flow at a fixed motor speed, the flow rate cannot be increased or decreased in response to the patient's exercise condition, and the risk of thrombosis increases due to the loss of the pulsatile flow. Hence, I am developing a ventricular assist device that can control heartbeat synchronization based on the timing of the heartbeat by using electromagnets used in the ventricular assist device to estimate the diseased heart's beating in real-time. As another approach to human-machine integration, I aim to create novel medical and welfare devices such as power-assistive suits that can repair themselves in the future by utilizing biological tissues such as skeletal muscles. In particular, I am now developing technologies for the design and control of biological tissues using engineering methods.