Polyethylene ionomer-based nano-composites foams prepared by a batch process and MuCell^(R) injection molding by Hayashi Hidetomo and Masami Okamoto.

The 2005 Morand Lambla Award recipient is Masami Okamoto.

Professor Okamoto’s contribution has been in the field of polymeric nanocomposites and their processing. Prof. Okamoto has investigated the detailed structure of dispersed nano-clay in polymeric matrices and their intercalated, flocculated or exfoliated states. His work has shown the role of the degree of intercalation of the polymer chains and the control of the flocculation on the material properties. Professor Okamoto has touched on a wide array of applications including nanocellular foams, PP based nanocomposites and biodegradable PLA nanocomposites. The Morand Lambla Award is a recognition for his achievements and creativity among young researchers in the polymer science and technology field. The award was officially presented to him during the PPS-21 international meeting.

Thomson Scientific Research Front Award 2004　(USA/Pennsylvania, UK/London)

On September 27, 2004, Thomson announced that it will be sponsoring a celebratory event in Tokyo on November 2, 2004 to honor the Japanese researchers who have been identified as leading Japanese scientists in Emerging Research Fronts. Developed by ISIR, a Thomson Scientific solution, a Research Front is a set of seminal papers in a specialized or highly focused area of research. A total of 16 Japanese scientists (featured below), representing 13 research fields, were identified. 

The first step in categorizing Research Fronts was identifying the most-cited papers?the top 1% of papers in 22 disciplines based on cumulative citation counts. The next step was to discover how these highly cited works are related to each other. This relationship is based upon how often the works of authors are being cited together by their peers or co-citations.

Once the highly cited papers were identified in each Research Front, the author address affiliations were examined to extract those having at least one author affiliation with a Japanese institution. Of the 5,269 Fronts in the 1998-2003 data, 854 (16%) had one or more authors with Japanese affiliations. If both the most-cited author and most-cited paper in each front had Japanese affiliations, it was determined that these Japanese authors were making important contributions to their specific areas of research.

This Research Front analysis was accomplished by examining the data in Essential Science Indicators for the six-year period, 1998-2003. Developed by ISI, the Essential Science Indicators Research Fronts data relies upon bibliographic and citation information to uncover the relationship of the work of scientists to one another. Research Front groupings consist of a set of highly cited papers interconnected by co-citations. "Thomson are pleased to be able to acknowledge the influence and accomplishments of these prominent Japanese researchers," said Mr. Adam Klein, Vice President & General Manager, Asia-Pacific, Thomson Scientific. "Research conducted in Japan has a long history of excellence, and the contributions of these individuals will have a lasting impact in their respective disciplines and the worldwide scientific community."

Dr. Masami Okamoto

"For hierarchical structure control for high functional materials in biopolymer nanocomposites"