On June 26, 2019 the winners of the German Innovation Award - Gottfried Wagener Prize 2019 were announced during the 11th ceremony of the award at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITech).

11th Anniversary Ceremony of the Gottfried Wagener Prize

The German Innovation Award (GIA) was established in 2008 by the German Chamber of Commerce in Japan and technology-focused German companies to promote cross-sector collaboration between industry and science while fostering the creation of new and the expansion of existing German-Japanese research networks. The German Innovation Award is awarded once a year to Japan-based young scientists for outstanding research in the categories Materials and Energy, Digitalization and Mobility, as well as Life Sciences. This year 52 applications from affiliates of 22 different universities and other research institutions were submitted.

The award ceremony was opened by Marcus Schürmann, Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Japan. The German Ambassador to Japan Dr. Hans Carl von Werthern and Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Takuya Hirai addressed the audience as guests of honor. As Gottfried Wagener, after whom the prize is named, had deep institutional ties to the TITech, the President of Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor Dr. Kazuya Masu also extended his congratulations to the winners and the organizers of the award. All speakers stressed the importance of science collaboration between Japan and Germany in the context of global challenges.

The subsequent announcement of the awardees was made by Professor Dr. Masuo Aizawa, Counselor to the President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Chairman of the distinguished permanent Jury of the GIA.

Each of the award winners receives 2,000,000 Yen prize money.

Over 100 guests from academia, business, politics and the press attended the ceremony. The following reception provided an opportunity to the participants to exchange thoughts in a relaxed atmosphere.

Winners of the German Innovation Award "Gottfried Wagener Prize 2019"

Materials and Energy

Prof. Dr. Hirotomo Nishihara
Associate Professor, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University
“Development of advanced template techniques for functional carbon materials”

Digitalization and Mobility

Prof. Dr. Pham Nam Hai
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology “Giant spin Hall effect in topological insulator and its application to ultralow power magnetoresistive random access memories”

Life Sciences

Prof. Dr. Sadao Ota
Associate Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo “Development of ghost cytometry technologies”

Team Member:
Prof. Dr. Ryoichi Horisaki
Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University