(Associate Professor, Tohoku University)
Both of "amorphous materials" such as glass and amorphous carbon and "interfaces" formed by contact between objects are ubiquitous in our surroundings. However, unlike in the case of crystals, which are characterized by their symmetry and lattice constant, no good way has yet been established to describe the structure. Our group uses "topology"—a new analytical method based on mathematics—to quantitatively extract and encode structural features that are buried in disorder and complexity. We are working on expanding the data-scientific materials development targeted by the MI2I project.