Assistant Professor Shohei Saito Receives the 2014 Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists in Technical Development
2014.12.27
Assistant Professor Shohei Saito, of Organic Synthesis, has been announced as the winner of the 2014 Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists in Technical Development.
Research Title: Development of Materials Imaging Technique Based on Flexible Fluorophores
Research Summary: Using environmentally-responsive luminescent agents is an effective method of visualizing invisible environmental changes inside a substance which happen with each passing moment. However, the technology for observing information on in what area the environmental change starts and when it ends with the naked eye, without using detection devices, has not been sufficiently established. Dr. Shohei Saito has developed a series of "moving luminophores," in which flexible molecules sense the environmental change surrounding them and change form, causing change in their luminescent color as the output. Further, using these molecules, he has pioneered visualization technology for tracking environmental changes inside a substance, such as stress, hardening, and freezing, in real-time.