Kazu Suenaga was born in Osaka in 1966. He got his Ph.D in Materials Science at the University of Tokyo in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mine de Paris (1994-1997) and at the Solid State Physics Laboratory in the University Paris-Sud (1997-1998). Then he joined the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST) as a researcher (1998-2001) and now is a team leader at National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). He has published over 90 scientific papers and delivered more than 50 invited lectures over the past ten years. His papers have more than 3,000 citations. A recipient of the Honda Memorial Promotional prize (1997) and the Seto award (Japanese society of Microscopy 2005). Grantee par Sumitomo Foundation (1997) and CREST-JST (2006). His major research theme involves the atomic level characterization of individual molecules by means of electron microscopy and spectroscopy.

Winner of the 2006 Sir Martin Wood Prize.

Short CV:
Ph. D, the University of Tokyo (1994)
Post-doc, Ecole Nationale Supereme des Mines, Paris (1994-1996)
Visiting Scientist, Technion, Israel (1995)
Post-doc, Lab. Physique des Solides, Universite Paris-Sud (1996-1998)
Researcher, JST-ICORP "Nanotubulites project"(1998-2001)
Team leader, AIST Nanocarbon center (2001-)
Group leader, JST-ERATO "Nakamura carbon cluster project"(2004-2006)

Research projects ever involved:
1. AFIRST (Association franco-israelienne pour la recherche scientifique et technologique) (1995-1997)
2. European network TMR "New Carbon-based hard materials" (1998-2000)
3. NEDO International joint research "Novel nanotubular materials: Production, Characterization and Properties" (1997-1998)
4. JST-ICORP "Nanotubulites project" (1998-2001)
5. JSPS Japan-France joint project (2004-2005)
6. NEDO "Nano-carbon technology project" (2002-2005)
7. JST-ERATO "Nakamura carbon cluster project" (2004-)
8. JST-CREST (2006-)
9. MEXT Tokutei(2007-)

Selected publications:
K. Suenaga, M. Tence, C. Mory, C. Colliex, H. Kato, H. Shinohara, K. Hirahara, S. Bandow and S. Iijima "Element-selective single atom imaging" Science, 290 (2000) pp.2280-2282
K. Hirahara, K. Suenaga, S. Bandow, T. Okazaki, H. Kato, H. Shinohara and S. Iijima "One-dimensional metallofullerene crystal generated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes"Physical Review Letters, 85 (2000) pp.5384-5387
M. Kociak, K. Suenaga, K. Hirahara, Y. Saito, T. Nakahira, S. Iijima, "Linking chiral indices and transport properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes"Physical Review Letters, 89 (2002) 155501 (4 pages)
K. Suenaga, T. Okazaki, C.-R. Wang, S. Bandow, H. Shinohara and S. Iijima, "Direct imaging of Sc2@C84 molecules encapsulated inside single-wall carbon nanotubes by high resolution electron microscopy with atomic sensitivity" Physical Review Letters, 90 (2003) 055506 (4 pages)
A. Hashimoto, K. Suenaga, A. Gloter, K. Urita and S. Iijima, "Direct Evidence for Atomic Defects in Graphene Layers"Nature 430 (2004)pp.870-873"
K. Urita, Y. Sato, K. Suenaga, A. Gloter, A. Hashimoto, M. Ishida, T. Shimada, H. Shinohara and S. Iijima "Defect-induced atomic migration in carbon nanopeapod: Tracking the single-atom dynamic behavior"Nano Letters, 4 (2004) pp.2451-2454
K. Urita, K. Suenaga, T. Sugai, H. Shinohara and S. Iijima "In-situ observation of thermal relaxation of interstitial-vacancy pair defects in a graphite gap" Physical Review Letters, 94 (2005) 155502 (4 pages)
Z. Liu, K. Suenaga, H. Yoshida, T. Sugai, H. Shinohara, and S. Iijima gDetermination of optical isomers for left-handed or right-handed chiral double-wall carbon nanotubesh, Physical Review Letters, 95(18) (2005) 187406 (4 pages)
L. Guan, K. Suenaga, Z. Shi, Z. Gu and S. Iijima "Direct imaging of the alkali metal site in K-doped fullerene peapods"Physical Review Letters, 94 (2005) 045502 (4 pages)
A. Hashimoto, K. Suenaga, K. Urita, T. Shimada, T. Sugai, H. Shinohara and S. Iijima "Atomic correlation between adjacent graphene layers in double-wall carbon nanotubes"Physical Review Letters, 94 (2005) 045504 (4 pages)
Z. Liu, M. Koshino, K. Suenaga, A. Mrzel, H. Kataura and S. Iijima "Transmission electron microscopy imaging of individual functional groups of fullerene derivatives" Physical Review Letters, 96 (2006) 088304 (4 pages)

(See his publication list.including Science 4, Nature 1, Nature Nano 3, PRL 10, JACS 7, PNAS 1, NanoLetters 9,,,.)

Kazu on the Pacific beach.