Creation of New Methods for Measurement and Their Applications
Posted: Sep. 11, 2014
Award Recipient: Dr. Hideaki Koizumi
Dr. Sc. Fellow (Corporate Officer), Hitachi, Ltd.
Hideaki Koizumi, the recipient of the 2013 Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award, has strived to address environmental problems, healthcare, welfare and education from the perspectives of chemistry, physics and analytical chemistry for Human Security and Well-being. He has created various measurement methods that are essential for accurately and objectively obtaining facts to tackle the challenge of measuring important information that used to be impossible to measure. He created a new principle and, harnessing cutting-edge technologies, established it as a new measurement methodology. Furthermore, he and his collaborators have conducted actual applications for the new measurement equipment in various fields such as environment, healthcare, biotechnology and brain- and neuroscience. Through his work on brain function measurement, for example, he developed new measurement equipment and extended applications to learning and education. Dr. Koizumi has consistently dedicated his research of more than 30 years to the creation of a new transdisciplinary field.
As a member of an industry, Dr. Koizumi engaged in the commercialization of his products, helping to release new products worldwide while exploring new engineering fields. He not only led intra-company development projects but also large-scale national projects as area director and project director of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), an independently administered corporation.
| 1. | In the environmental field, the creation of the polarized Zeeman effect atomic absorption analytic method enabled highly accurate and high-precision analyses of trace elements in samples from the actual environment. By simply adding a compact permanent magnet that can be held by one hand (magnetic field intensity: 1 T) and a polarized prism to a regular spectrophotometer, ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of approximately 30-GHz resolution was enabled within visible and ultraviolet wavelengths; atomic absorption, molecular absorption and light scattering were separated in high precision, to achieve an ideal zero-point measurement method. This development is based on a few discoveries such as (1) the normal and anomalous Zeeman effects and the sample spectra and the reference spectra can be separated at a magnetic field intensity of around 1 T beyond the Lorentz-Doppler broadening of the atomic absorption spectroscopy under the atmospheric pressure and at a high temperature; (2) only the spectral line absorbing the Zeeman effect, not the spectral line emitting the Zeeman effect, can solve instability due to the level crossing in the ultrafine structure caused by the nuclear spins; and (3) the wavelength of the sample spectra and that of the reference spectra can be made completely identical by using the polarized elements under conditions that are free of degeneracy in a magnetic field. The measurement principle and equipment have already been applied and used worldwide (approximately 10,000 measurement systems have been shipped from the Hitachi Group to date). The polarized Zeeman effect atomic absorption analytic method enabled the quick analysis of micro-volume mercury contained in hair, sludge, fish and shellfish, contributing to identifying the contamination source in Minamata disease and obtaining related pollution data. With this method, data on the cadmium-poisoned rice that caused Itai-itai disease, blood poisoning due to the lead that was added to gasoline and arsenic contained in drinking water, was also obtained. This method is also contributing to the conservation of the natural environment through wastewater management and pollution monitoring of rivers and lakes. Currently, the polarized Zeeman effect atomic absorption analytic method is being used widely for environmental conservation in 25 countries worldwide including the United States, Europe and China. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Japanese patent system, the then-Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) selected the method as one of the most outstanding 50 patents in Japan. |
| 2. | In the healthcare and welfare field, Dr. Koizumi installed Japan's first superconducting MRI product (magnetic intensify of 0.5 T) as the MRI development project leader of Hitachi, Ltd. Also, the MR Angiography (MRA), which was developed from the discovery of its principle, enabled a brain dock for diagnosing brain blood vessels without the use of contrast agents, which was derived from a fact discovered coincidentally during an unrelated experiment which indicated that blood flow in a gradient magnetic field causes remarkable phase changes. Unlike conventional methods, as contrast agents are not, the safe detection of obstructive cerebrovascular disease and cerebral aneurysms became possible. The MRA also significantly improved medical diagnosis and prevention capabilities. For instance, subarachnoid hemorrhaging (SAH), which previously had a high fatality rate, has become preventable by surgery. The development of Japan's first functional MRI research equipment in 1992 (six months after its development in the United States) enabled the imaging of high-level brain functions including human mental activities. Dr. Koizumi and his colleagues discovered in their first experiment that the cerebral motor area is activated not only when we actually move our finger but also even when we think about moving our finger. This finding was announced in 1992. Equipment based on this principle (near-infrared spectroscopic optical topography (NIRS-OT), the first paper on which was released in 1995, was adopted) was commercialized by Hitachi, Ltd., for communication with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients who appeared to be in a vegetative state. The existence of clear consciousness was confirmed in patients with locked-in syndrome with whom communication was impossible for two and half years. Communication between the patient and the patient's family was also successful. |
| 3. | A new technology, "optical topography," was created aiming for people-friendly life science. Optical topography is an evaluation method for intra-blood oxidized and deoxidized hemoglobin by measuring light absorption and scattering. The basic patent has been obtained for optical topography, and the trademarks have been registered for the methodology and the names of the equipment, which are recognized as a proprietary Japanese technology worldwide. Optical topography is a technology applicable in various fields such as determining a language area before a surgical operation and has already been approved under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law of Japan and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This extremely safe measurement method can measure brain functions including mental activities under natural conditions without restraining subjects during examination, thereby helping tap new fields such as that involving the measurement of the brain functions of babies and infants. Many innovative theses have been issued by the national projects led by Dr. Koizumi, and Hitachi's Central Research Laboratory group, which is also led by him. The latest accomplishments by his colleagues and himself include a psychological examination during walking (2010) and measurement of the interaction of two persons' brain activities during their collaborative work by simultaneously imaging their brain activities (2011), which explored a new research direction into sociality and group dynamics. The Chemical Society of Japan, in recognition of his many extraordinary contributions and accomplishments, awards Dr. Koizumi with the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award. |