Mr. Yuito Narita, an Environmental Engineering for Symbiosis major in the master’s program at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Soka University, received MESD Graduate Poster Award at the “2021 AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Annual Meeting.”

It is an award given to graduate students who have made outstanding presentations from AIChE, a historic organization with over 60,000 members. This was the first time a student of Soka University received this award. This year’s in-person meeting was held from November 7th to 11th, 2021, in Boston, America. Mr. Narita participated in the online meeting held from November 15th to 19th.

His presentation was titled, “Synthesis and Characterization of ZnO Photocatalysts with Different Morphologies.” The study was conducted as one of the efforts for an international collaborative project Soka University is engaged in with Universiti Sains Malaysia. It accounts for a part of the technology in which photocatalysts cleanly degrade persistent organic compounds. The research showed that the performance of the photocatalyst differs depending on the shape of the zinc oxide particles, and it contributes to the development of high-performance photocatalyst.

Mr. Narita, the award winner, commented as follows. “I am truly delighted to have received such an award this time. It was my first conference presentation, and I had to do it in English, so I remember getting very nervous. With this award as encouragement, I will continue to strive to resolve environmental issues with a tool called photocatalyst.”

Co-presenters: Junichi Ida (Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering), Tatsushi Matsuyama (Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering), Kento Nishi