Associate Professor Kazuki Komatsu of Geochemical Research Center has been awarded the Academic Award of the Crystallographic Society of Japan for his research achievements entitled “Elucidation of Crystal Structures of Ice Polymorphs by Neutron Diffraction Experiments under High Pressure.” We extend our heartfelt congratulations on this honor. This award is presented to researchers under the age of 50 who have conducted original and outstanding research in the field of crystallography.
Associate Professor Komatsu has focused his research on ice, one of the most familiar and ubiquitous substances in our daily lives, and has achieved numerous pioneering results by elucidating its crystal structures under high-pressure conditions. Neutron diffraction experiments, which enable the precise determination of hydrogen atom positions, are essential for determining the crystal structures of ice. He developed an experimental system—commonly known as the MITO system—that enables simultaneous control of temperature and pressure in the low-temperature region, which had previously been technically challenging. By fully utilizing the intense pulsed neutron source at J-PARC MLF, he has significantly advanced structural studies of high-pressure ice. As a result of these efforts, he has successively reported groundbreaking achievements that have dramatically advanced the science of ice, including the synthesis of stacking-disorder-free ice Ic and the experimental demonstration of hydrogen-bond symmetrization in ice at approximately 80 GPa.
We sincerely congratulate Associate Professor Komatsu on this well-deserved award and wish him continued success in his future research endeavors.