Akira Yoshino

• Honorary Fellow, Asahi Kasei Corp.
• National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Fellow
• Director of Global Zero Emission Research Center, Department of Energy and Environment
• President, Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center (LIBTEC)
• Distinguished Professor and Visiting Professor of Transdisciplinary Research and Education Center for Green Technologies, Kyushu University
• Distinguished Professor and Professor of Graduate School of Science and Technology, Meijo University

Akira Yoshino is a Japanese chemist. He is an honorary fellow of Asahi Kasei Corporation and a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya. He created the first safe, production-viable lithium-ion battery which became used widely in cellular phones and notebook computers.

At Kyoto University, Dr Yoshino was a member of the laboratory headed by the late Professor Teijiro Yonezawa, the first disciple of Kenichi Fukui, who in 1981 became Japan's first chemistry laureate.

He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 and shared the prize with two other researchers — Dr John B Goodenough of the University of Texas, and Dr M Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University, a part of the State University of New York — all recognized for the development of lithium-ion batteries.

Yoshino spent his entire non-academic career at Asahi Kasei Corporation. Immediately after graduating with his master's degree in 1972, Yoshino began working at Asahi Kasei. He began work in the Kawasaki Laboratory in 1982 and was promoted to manager of product development for ion batteries in 1992. In 1994, he became manager of technical development for the LIB manufacturer A&T Battery Corp., a joint venture company of Asahi Kasei and Toshiba. Asahi Kasei made him a fellow in 2003 and, in 2005, general manager of his own laboratory. Since 2017, he has been a professor at Meijo University and his status at Asahi Kasei changed to honorary fellow.

Read article "OIST Board of Governors Welcomes Dr. Akira Yoshino"