<CURRICULUM VITAE>
Akira Hirao (平尾 明)
Akira Hirao was born in December 4th, 1947. He received his Doctorate Degree from
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in March,
1975. After post-doctoral work in the USA for two years, his professional carrier started
at the Tokyo Institute of Technology progressed from Assistant Professor (1977-83),
Associate Professor (1983-96), to Full Professor (1996-2013). He was the Chairman of
Polymeric and Organic Materials Department four times, Vice-Dean two times, and the
Head of Faculty. He became an Emeritus Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology
from April, 2013.
He has been working in the area of polymer synthesis since 1975. His research
interests are focused on the following areas: synthesis and living anionic polymerization
of new functional monomers, precise synthesis of architectural polymers such as
multiblock polymers, exactly defined graft polymers, high-density comb-like polymers,
chain-endand
in-chain-multi-functionalized
polymers,
multiarmed
and
multicomponent
star-branched
polymers,
and
high-generation
and
high-molecular-weight dendrimer-like star-branched polymers, and surface
nanostructure control and analyses using well-defined perfluoroalkyl polymers.
In recent years, he received the Japan Polymer Society Award (2010), the best award
in polymer science in Japan, the Publication Award from the Society of Rheology (USA)
(2011), and the Outstanding Achievement in Polymer Science and Technology Award
from the Japan Polymer Society (2014). He has been a fellow academia in the Japan
Polymer Society since 2014. He was members of the Editorial Board of
“Macromolecules”, “Polymer Journal” and is currently members of “Macromolecular
Research”, “European Polymer Journal”, “Chemical Materials” and others. He was
nominated by project leaders in four bilateral (USA, France, Korea two times)
collaboration projects supported by both governments. He organized eleven
international symposia as (co)organizers. He has published more than 300 papers in
peer reviewed journals, such as Macromolecules, J. Am. Chem. Soc., J. Org. Chem., J.
Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., Polymer Chemistry, Macromolecular Rapid Commun.,
Prog. Polym. Sci., etc., 20 book chapters (and two co-editors), and given 80 keynote,
plenary, and invited lectures at international conferences and more than 300 invited
talks and lectures in Japan (~200 times) as well as overseas (~100 times) including
Polymer Society, Chemical Society, Universities, and companies.
He is now Distinguished Chair Professor of National Taiwan University (Taiwan) and
National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan). He is also Visiting Professors of Pohang
University of Science and Technology (Postech, Korea), Fudan University (China),
Changchun University of Science and Technology (China), and King Abdulla University
of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) to deliver lectures for a few years.