The Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) jointly recognize the international PCCP Prize, named after the academic journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) published by the RSC.

Since its establishment in 2007, several outstanding young scientists have been selected each year to receive this joint award from the CSJ and RSC.

As in previous years, divisions of the CSJ were invited to submit nominations. The PCCP Prize Selection Committee convened to review 15 nomination documents submitted by 11 of the divisions. The assessment criteria encompassed research topics, performance outcomes, and the effective presentation of accomplishments.

As a result, the following three individuals have been selected as recipients of the 2026 PCCP Prize. This decision was officially approved by the CSJ Board of Directors.

The awardees will be honored during the CSJ Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, March 18th―the second day of the 106th CSJ Annual Meeting―where they will receive the prestigious PCCP Prize certificates and supplementary prizes.

PCCP Prize 2026 Awardees:

　

Dr. Hiroki Uratani
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University

Mixed Quantum-Classical Approaches to Ultrafast Excited-State Dynamics of Complex Systems

Recommended by the Theoretical Chemistry, Chemoinformatics, Computational Chemistry Division

---

Dr. Kentaro Kadota
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

Tailoring Labile Species in Metal-Organic Frameworks

Recommended by the Coordination Chemistry, Organo-metallic Chemistry Division

---

Dr. Keisuke Nakamura
Program-Specific Assistant Professor, Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University

Multi-scale fabrication of hierarchical architectures in hydrogels with novel functions

Recommended by the Polymer Division