is a Japanese

material scientist Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials scien ...

. He is a Specially Appointed Researcher at the

National Institute for Materials Science is an Independent Administrative Institution and one of the largest scientific research centers in Japan. History The growth and development of today's scientific research center has passed through several phases in a number of locations: In ...

(NIMS).

Early life and education

Watanabe was born in

Fujiyoshida is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,782 in 19,806 households and a population density of 400 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Fujiyoshida lie ...

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

. He graduated from the Faculty of Science at

Shizuoka University is a national university in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Shizuoka University is well known in the field of engineering, in creative innovation, and in the invention of next generation technology, with the prestigious international exchange o ...

in 1985.Kenji Watanabe National Institute for Materials Science
/ref>グラフェンデバイス用六方晶窒化ホウ素単結晶
IMS NOW 2014 January-February After received a Doctor of Science degree from the Graduate School of Science,

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

in 1990, he joined

Oki Electric Industry , commonly referred to as OKI, OKI Electric or the OKI Group, is a Japanese information and communications technology company, headquartered in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo and operating in over 120 countries around the world. OKI produced the f ...

Co., Ltd.

NIMS

Since 1994, Watanabe has been affiliated with the former National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM), which is now part of the

(NIMS). He served as a Principal Researcher in the Electronic Ceramics Group, Electronic and Electrical Functional Materials Field, Functional Materials Research Center at NIMS. In 2023, he became a Specially Appointed Researcher at the Electronic and Photonic Functional Materials Research Center of NIMS and also a Visiting Researcher in the Semiconductor Defect Control Group, Optical Materials Field, within the same center. His specialty is

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

physics and engineering, and he has been collaborating with

Takashi Taniguchi was a Japanese voice actor from Hokkaido. He was last attached to Office Ōsawa at the time of his death. On December 28, 2012, fellow voice actor Toshio Furukawa announced Taniguchi's death through Twitter after receiving the news through Office ...

on the development of high-purity hexagonal

boron nitride Boron nitride is a thermally and chemically resistant refractory compound of boron and nitrogen with the chemical formula B N. It exists in various crystalline forms that are isoelectronic to a similarly structured carbon lattice. The hexago ...

(h-BN) technology.

Awards and honors

* 2017 –

MEXT The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...

Commendation for Science and Technology (Research Category) * 2022 –

Clarivate Citation Laureates Clarivate Citation Laureates, formerly Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, is a list of candidates considered likely to win the Nobel Prize in their respective field. The candidates are so named based on the citation impact of their published rese ...

* 2023 –

James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials The James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials is a prize that has been awarded annually by the American Physical Society since 1975, but was only given that name following its endowment by IBM in 1999. Prior to that it was known as the International ...

* 2023 – Ichimura Academic Award第55回概要
/ref> * 2023 –

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

Special Meritorious Service Award * 2024 –

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

* 2024 – Tsukuba Prize

References

External links

渡邊賢司 (WATANABE, Kenji)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Kenji 1962 births Living people Japanese physicists Japanese materials scientists Shizuoka University alumni Hokkaido University alumni Scientists from Yamanashi Prefecture People from Yamanashi Prefecture