Moonshot Research and Development Project

Development of Multi-lock Biopolymers Degradable in Ocean from Non-food Biomasses

I developed the elongational rheometer for polymer melts and commercialized it. I discovered that the non-linearity of elongational viscosity in large deformation is caused by long relaxation time and also affects the molding processability of polymers. I Applied these to CAE and commercialize. I engaged in university management as a director or president of Yamagata University from 2007 to 2020.

I mainly conduct research on the production of useful substances using bacteria and filamentous fungi. 2019-2021: Dean of graduate school of agricultural science; 2020 – Panel officer of JST fusion oriented research for disruptive science and technology program.

Has researched on molecular simulations at Hitachi since graduated from Tsukuba University in 1990. Received best technology awards (JSMS, JIEP), best paper awards (IEEE, JSMS, JSME, JIEP, IEEJ), and publicity award (SPSJ).

He has consistently been involved in the development of new synthetic methods for condensation polymers, and has also been engaged in the development of advanced functional polymeric materials using these　methods, such as thermally stable and photosensitive polymers, polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells, polyimide memory, polymers for solar cells, forward osmosis membranes, and high refractive index polymers.

K. Fujii is a Director of regulatory strategy and principle risk assessor of chemicals and consumer products in Kao Corporation. His works are area of responsible for promoting as well as tracking global development in safety standard of chemicals and products. He involved in international committee in chemical stewardship including MP environmental risk management.

His major is recycling engineering and environment-related chemistry. He has developed processes using chemical reactions to promote the recycling of waste resources, and has developed links with industry through the conversion of chemical raw materials.

I was grew up in Nagasaki city. I spent most of my life in Fukuoka for over 40 years. My major is eco-toxicology, and the main topic is the impact of microplastics on aquatic organisms. Jogging, Mac, and dog are my fun.

Dr. Numata earned his Ph.D. (2007) with a thesis centered on enzymatic degradation and synthesis with hydrolases of biopolymers, especially poly(hydroxyalkanoate). Please find his full cv here: http://pixy.polym.kyoto-u.ac.jp/keiji_numata_en.html

He started working at the National Research Institute for Metals (now NIMS) since 1995 and became Project Professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, U. Tokyo in 2015. He moved back to NIMS as Deputy Director of Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System, newly established at NIMS in April 2017. He has been in his current position since April 2020. He specializes in data-driven materials research.

Experimental/theoretical researcher on inorganic functional materials including thermoelectric materials in the University of Tokyo and RIKEN (since 2009). The founder and the leader of the Starrydata project: an open database of experimental materials data extracted from papers (since 2015).

He entered to "Research Institute for Polymers and Textiles" after doctor course. This institute and others have been reconstructed to "National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology". His research activities are "Synthesis of biodegradable polymers", "International Standardization of biodegradation for polymers" and "Standardization of biomass carbon content measuring method".　He changed the position from research group to general affairs at 2016.　He is supporting the standardization in AIST.

He specializes in life cycle engineering, which evaluates the environmental impact of products and manufacturing processes and the development of environmentally conscious design methods. In particular, he conducts life cycle environmental impact assessment of plastic products including disposal and recycling. He also conducts research on social systems, such as consumer behavior, recycling legislation, and sharing economy as a new form of consumption and production pattern.

His fields of specialization are physical properties of polymers and interfacial engineering. Currently, he has been leading a national project related to the construction of next-generation adhesive technology.

His research field is analytical data science. He has been working on data cleansing of complex NMR data of biological and environmental samples, extracting relationships with other factors (e.g., environmental microflora, environmental physical information, material properties, etc.) by machine learning, and performing causal inference. He is also a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Medical Life Science, Yokohama City University, and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University.

Teiyu Sako is an attorney at law and patent attorney in Tokyo, Japan. He received Ph.D. in Engineering from University of Tokyo and LL.M. degree from UC Berkeley. Based on his IT knowledge and practical experience as an engineer, he handles many IP cases, particularly in the fields of patent litigation, opinion, negotiation, licensing, and application.