Sumio Iijima

Born: May 2, 1939

Japanese phycist Sumio Iijima is best known for his discovery of the carbon nanotube.

Important Contributions:

a. From 1970-1982, Iijima worked at Arizona State University in the US with crystalline materials and high resolution electron micrscopy.

b. In 1982, he returned to Japan to the Research Development Coroporation of Japan, where he worked with ultrafine particles.

c. In 1987, he joined NEC corp, where he discovered the carbon nanotubein 1991. In 2202, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in physics in 2002 for his accomplishment.

Currently, Iijima works at NEC and since 1999, has been a professor at Meijo university.

References

"Sumio Iijima " Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumio_Iijima

S. Iijima, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 8, 1377 (1969)