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NIMS Award to a world-class researcher who did innovative research and accomplished excellent results in Materials Science

About NIMS Award


NIMS Award Logo images "Wish the birth of new science and technology"

NIMS has given the NIMS Award* to a distinguished person or a group who had made significant progress in Materials Science since 2007. Award candidates are nominated by world-leading scientists and fairly judged by the NIMS Award Committee consisting of neutral experts.
The award ceremony and winning lecture have been held as one of events of NIMS Conference until 2015. In 2016 NIMS was reborn as a Designated Research and Development Institute and NIMS conference was restructured into a part of NIMS WEEK. The NIMS award ceremony and winning lecture became one of the main events of NIMS WEEK.
The ceremony and lecture will be held during NIMS WEEK.
*NIMS Award for Recent Breakthrough in Materials Science and Technology.

NIMS Award Medal



The NIMS Award medal is made of ethical gold, recycled gold from urban mines, which was also used for the medals at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The materials' recycle process was conceived by NIMS scientists.

> About the research regarding this topic:

Honoring Fields

  • Materials for Environment and Energy
  • Functional Materials
  • Structural Materials
  • Basic Materials Science

These four research fields are especially important Materials Science fields that NIMS focuses on. NIMS Award winners are selected from each research field in turn every year.

Criteria of Selection

NIMS Award shall be given to a person who represents innovative research and accomplishes excellent results in Materials Science based on the concept "The true value of materials is in their use"

Qualification Requirement

The NIMS Award recipient must be available to participate in the ceremony and to give a winning-lecture at NIMS WEEK.

Selection Process

  • NIMS Nomination Working Group (N-WG) and experts outside NIMS nominate and make a list of candidates.
  • N-WG narrows down the candidates based on their achievements.
  • NIMS Award Committee ranks the candidates and confirm whether they meet the requirements for the award.
  • NIMS President makes a final decision.

Announcement and Ceremony

The announcement of the winners will be on NIMS official website.