At the invitation of the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Prof. Isao Tanaka from Kyoto University visited IMR from Jun.4th  to Jun 6th , as a recipient of 2012 Lee Hsun Lecture Award. During the visit, Prof. Tanaka delivered a lecture entitled “Exploring structures and phase relationships of ceramics at finite temperatures from first principles”, presided by Prof. WANG Jingyang. Before the lecture, Prof. CHENG Huiming, the Deputy Director of IMR presented the plaque of Lee Hsun Award to Prof. Tanaka. The excellent lecture got a high degree of attention and praise. After the lecture, Prof. Tanaka gave wonderful answers to the audience’s questions. He also had an academic discussion with many researchers of the High-performance Ceramics Division.

Prof. Tanaka graduated from the Osaka University, and got the PhD degree in 1987. He is the Director of the Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry, Kyoto University. Currently mainly engaged in oxide / nitride semiconductor, solid ion conductors, battery materials, and the engineering ceramics research. He has published 278 papers  and organized 17 International Symposium. Prof. Tanaka has won multiple awards, including the Philipp Franz of Siebold-Preis (Federal Republic of Germany), and the Richard M. Fulrath Award from American Ceramics Society in 2004. He served as the subeditor for Journal of American Ceramics Society.