Topics

The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

The Young Scientists’ Award

ASAKAWA Daiki

Dr. ASAKAWA Daiki, Chief Senior Researcher of Applied Nanoscopic Measurement Group, Research Institute for Measurement and Analytical Instrumentation, has received the 2022 Young Scientists' Award, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his achievement on “Research on the gas-phase radical fragmentation process of proteins.” The research provides the academic community with a new research perspective from a chemical theory on the fragmentation of gas-phase ions that occurs in mass spectrometers, facilitating the development of more accurate analytical methods and reference materials for biomolecules.

Reference: D. Asakawa et al., “Hot Hydrogen Atom Irradiation of Protonated/Deprotonated Peptide in an Ion Trap Facilitates Fragmentation through Heated Radical Formation”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 144, 3020,
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c11081

The Award for Creativity

SUGAYA Miyuki

Dr. SUGAYA Miyuki, Senior Researcher of Legal Weighing Metrology Group, Research Institute for Engineering Measurement, has received the 2022 Award for Creativity, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his achievement on “Improvement of high-performance testing device for heat meters.” Heat meters are used as measuring instruments to measure the amount of heat consumed by hot water system and floor heating at home, which are in great demand due to the increase in district heating in smart cities. As an organization providing type approval tests based on the Measurement Act, NMIJ/AIST should conduct tests which comply with the new technical standards for the electromagnetic type heat meters using a new measurement principle. Dr. SUGAYA made improvements to the structure of the testing device and the temperature control, and realized highly accurate and stable evaluation.