Université de Strasbourg

Susumu Kitagawa

Susumu Kitagawa

Susumu Kitagawa is Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director-General at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS) and Director of the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), at Kyoto University, Japan.

His research is focused on the design and synthesis of functional porous materials. He was the first to discover and to demonstrate porosity in solid coordination networks with gas sorption experiments - materials which are now known as porous coordination polymers (PCPs) or metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). 

Professor Kitagawa has published nearly 600 scientific papers and has served the community as Associate Editor of Chemistry, the Asian Journal, and CrystEngCommun, and as member of the editorial advisory boards of numerous journals including Chemical Communications, Inorganic Chemistry, Chemistry of Materials, and Angewandte Chemie. He was appointed Frontiers in Chemical Research Lecturer, Texas A & M University, USA (2009) and Earl L. Muetterties Memorial Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, USA (2007). He was visiting professor at Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France (2005) and Sun Yat-sen University, China (2005).

He was awarded the Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry Award (2007), the Humboldt Research Award, Germany (2008), the Chemical Society of Japan Award (2009), a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate (2010), the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese Government (2011), an Honorary Fellowship of the Chemical Research Society of India (2011). He received De Gennes Prize 2013 by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Fred Basolo Medal (2016) by the American Chemical Society, and was elected a member of the Science Council of Japan (2012)

Professor Kitagawa will deliver the 3rd Kyoto Lecture on Monday 25 September 2017 at 16:30, at the Salle de Conférence of ISIS.

Poster

Programme

Photos of the event

3rd Kyoto Lecture

Welcome to Small Spaces:
Gas Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future

By Susumu Kitagawa
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director-General at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS);
Director of the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), at Kyoto University, Japan.

Monday 25 September 2017, 16:30
Auditorium ISIS, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, Strasbourg, France (map)

With an introduction by Jean-Marie Lehn, USIAS Chair of Chemistry of Complex Systems, Nobel laureate 1987.

With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, humans began to create technologies that consumed huge amounts of energy. Initially, people used coal (solid) as an energy resource, but the 20th century ushered in the age of petroleum (liquid). In the 21st century, where the depletion of petroleum has become a concern, gas (e.g., natural gas, biogas and even air) should play an important role. Hence, there will be a shift from solid to liquid to gas. The future should realize the “age of gas”, which will eventually utilize ubiquitous gas such as air.

Image Lecture Kitagawa

In this context, porous materials with nanosized spaces will significantly contribute to the science and technology that handle gases ad arbitrium. Materials with nanosized spaces are abundant in everyday modern life; they are used for gas storage, separation, and catalysis. The discovery of novel materials with functions superior to activated carbon and zeolite can drastically change human life. However, the synthesis of new porous materials has remained stagnant until the early 1990s, when interest in the field first became widespread.

Based on the revolutionary concept of bottom-up synthesis, we are now able to successfully develop novel porous materials, involving everything from serendipitous findings to tailor-made synthesis. These are called “porous coordination polymers” (PCPs) or “metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs), which are comprised of organic and inorganic materials. MOFs have great potential in applications in a wide variety of fields, such as the global environment, natural resources, development of outer space, life sciences, and energy, demonstrating their high value for science, industry and society.

The Lecture will be followed by a reception.

France 2030