MANA Director-General Masakazu Aono, was selected as a winner of 2010 Feynman Prizes for Experimental work by Foresight Institute, which is a nonprofit organization in the United States.

This prestigious prize was established in 1993 in honor of Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. Two prizes are awarded in two categories, theory and experiment, to recognize researchers whose recent work has most advanced the field toward the achievement of Feynman's vision for nanotechnology: molecular manufacturing, the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of molecular machine systems. The award ceremony will be held in California next January.

Dr. Aono was appraised in recognition of his pioneering and continuing work, including research into the manipulation of atoms, the multiprobe STM and AFM, the atomic switch, and single-molecule-level chemical control including ultradense molecular data storage and molecular wiring; and his inspiration of an entire generation of researchers who have made their own ground-breaking contributions to nanotechnology.