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 130 scientific papers and delivered more than 50 invited lectures over the past ten years. His papers have more than 5,800 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. His h-index is 38.

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 and M. Koshino, "Atom-by-atom spectroscopy at graphene edge"
Nature, 468 (2010) pp.1088-1090
- K. Suenaga, Y. Sato, Z. Liu, H. Kataura, T. Okazaki, K. Kimoto, H. Sawada, T. Sasaki, K. Omoto, T. Tomita, T. Kaneyama, and Y. Kondo, "Visualizing and identifying single atoms using electron energy-loss spectroscopy with low accelerating voltage"
Nature Chemistry, 1 (2009) pp.415 - 418
- C. Jin, H. Lan, L. Peng, K. Suenaga and S. Iijima "Deriving Carbon Atomic Chains from Graphene"
Physical Review Letters, 102 (2009) 205501 (4 pages)
- Z. Liu, K. Suenaga, P.J.F. Harris and S. Iijima “Open and closed edges of graphene layers”
Physical Review Letters, 102 (2009) 015501 (4 pages)
- C. Jin, H.-P. Lan, K. Suenaga, L.-M. Peng and S. Iijima “Metal atom catalyzed enlargement of fullerenes”
Physical Review Letters, 101 (2008) 176102 (4 pages)
- M. Koshino, T. Tanaka, N. Solin, K. Suenaga, H. Isobe and E. Nakamura “Imaging of single organic molecules in motion”
Science 316 (2007) p.853
- Z. Liu, K. Yanagi, K. Suenaga, H. Kataura and S. Iijima “Imaging the dynamic behaviour of individual retinal chromophores confined inside carbon nanotubes”
Nature Nanotechnology, 2 (2007) pp.422-425
- K. Suenaga, H. Wakabayashi, M. Koshino, Y. Sato, K. Urita and S. Iijima “Imaging active topological defects in carbon nanotubes”
Nature Nanotechnology, 2 (2007) pp.358-360
- 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)
- 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. 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
- Y. Zhang, K. Suenaga, C. Colliex and S. Iijima "Coaxial nanocable: Silicon carbide and silicon oxide sheathed with boron nitride and carbon"
Science, 281 (1998) pp973-975
- K. Suenaga, C. Colliex, N. Demoncy, A. Loiseau, H. Pascard and F. Willaime "Synthesis of nanoparticles and nanotubes with well-separated layers of boron nitride and carbon"
Science, 278 (1997) pp653-655

(See his publication list. including 4 Science, 2 Nature, 7 other Nature journals, , 15 PRL, 9 JACS, 1 PNAS, 10 NanoLetters,,,.)

Kazu on the Pacific beach.