PEOPLE

Ken Kurosaki is a Professor of Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science). He was born in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan in 1973. He received his B.E. (1995), M.E. (1997), and Ph.D. (2003) in Nuclear Engineering from Osaka University. He was an Assistant Professor (1998-2009) and an Associate Professor (2009-2019) at Osaka University. His awards include Best Scientific Paper Award at the 24th International Conference on Thermoelectrics (2005), Encouraging Prize of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (2006), Best Paper Award of Thermoelectric Society of Japan (2008 & 2012), and Academic Award of Thermoelectric Society of Japan (2018). He has also been the Director of the Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science since April 2023.

Yifan Sun is an Assistant Professor at Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science). He was born in Henan, China, in 1994. He received his B.S. (2016) in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, M.E. (2019), and Ph.D. (2022) in Engineering from Osaka University. He was a Program-Specific Researcher at Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science)(2022).He was awarded the EPD Best Poster - First Place Award at the TMS 2019 Annual Meeting & Exhibition and the Best Student Presentation Award at the 42nd Japan Symposium on Thermophysical Properties. He received the Encouragement Award from the 57th Atomic Energy Society of Japan(2025). Currently, he is working on nuclear-related materials and thermoelectric materials.

Mari Toyama is an Assistant Professor at Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science). She was born in Niigata, Prefecture, Japan in 1975. She received her B.E. (1999), M.E. (2001), and Ph.D. (2007) in Engineering from Meiji University. She was a Prat-time Lecturer (2007-2015) at Meiji University, an Associate Professor (2015-2019) at Konan University, a Lecturer at Osaka Prefecture University College of Technology (2019-2020), and a Lecturer at Osaka Electro-Communication University (2020-2022). Her awards include Student Poster Awards at the 55th Conference of Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry (2003) and 21st ICP Satellite Symposium on Photochemical and Photobiology of Complexes Including Supramolecular Systems and Coordination Compounds (2005).

Theeranuch Nachaithong is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science, Kyoto University. She was born in Kalasin, Thailand in 1992. She received her B.E. (2014), M.E. (2017), and Ph.D. (2021) degrees in Materials Science and Nanotechnology from Khon Kaen University, Thailand. She subsequently held postdoctoral positions at Khon Kaen University (2022–2023, 2024–2025) and Thammasat University (2023–2024). Her research focuses on dielectric oxide and semiconductor materials, particularly for electronic and energy-related applications. She integrates experimental studies with computational and materials informatics approaches, including DFT and machine learning, to explore and design advanced functional materials with tailored properties. She has received several academic awards, including the Best Master’s Thesis Award in Science (2017) and the Best Doctoral Thesis Award in Science (2022)

Masaya Kumagai is a Researcher (part-time) at Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science), Researcher at Sakura Internet Inc. and Visiting Researcher at RIKEN. He was born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan in 1989. He received his B.E. (2012) from National Institute of Technology (Maizuru College), M.E. (2014) and Ph.D. (2017) in Engineering from Osaka University. He was a Program-Specific Assistant Professor at Kyoto University (Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science)(2020-2024). His awards include Poster Award at the 38th International Conference on Thermoelectrics (2019), Poster Award of Thermoelectric Society of Japan (2019).

Fission of nuclear fuels generates enormous energy, but also fission products. As fission products accumulate