Hydrogen Energy Systems                                     ENERGY CENTER

2008 Recipient

Professor Etsuo Akiba National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

The Energy Center awarded the Herbert C. Brown Award for Innovations in Hydrogen Research to Japanese Professor Etsuo Akiba. The award, presented during the 2008 Hydrogen Symposium, honors an individual who has not only demonstrated outstanding leadership in hydrogen research, policy, and international techniques, but also consistently and effectively illumined energy issues worldwide.

Akiba studied in Japan, earning his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saitama University in 1974. He continued studying chemistry at the University of Tokyo, where he received his master’s degree in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1979. From 1983-84, Akiba worked as a research associate at the National Research Council Canada. In 1991, he conducted research as a visiting scientist at the Laboratoire de Cristallographie in France.

Akiba serves as adjunct professor at three Japanese universities: Hiroshima University, Kyushu University, and Utsunomiya University, and is a Principal Research Scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). He has been appointed by the Japanese government to lead two research projects, “Fundamental Research Project on Advanced Hydrogen Storage Materials” and “Development for Safe Utilization and Infrastructure of Hydrogen.” In 2000, he received the 59th Notable Invention Award of the Science and Technology Agency in Japan. Throughout his career, Akiba has obtained more than thirty international and domestic patents and has published over 150 scientific papers.