Research Director: Dr. Kazuhito Hashimoto
(Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering / Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo)
Research Term: 2006-2011

The Hashimoto Light Energy Conversion Project is concerned with the design, development and optimization of materials and devices involved with the conversion of light energy into a useful form. By incorporating aspects of bioscience with materials science and purpose-orientated basic research, it aims to create materials and systems that can be used as a basis to help solve the impending world energy crisis.

The project focuses on the following three research areas:
(1) The creation of high-efficiency organic thin film solar cells.
(2) The construction of robust, artificial, inorganic photosynthetic nanodevices
(3) Microbial energy conversion in self-propagating solar and fuel cells and environmental cleanup device development