The 12th Matsuno Environmental Science Award recipients

2026-07-16

　We are happy to announce that the following 4 individuals have been selected as the 12th Matsuno Science Award recipients. Congratulations! The award ceremony will be held along with the degree conferment ceremony in September.

Zakia Aktar (Division of Environmental Science Development)

Hospital Effluent as a New Source of Anthropogenic Lanthanum in the Environment

Zakia Aktar, Kazuhiro Toyoda
　Environmental Science and Technology Letters 11(6), 598–603 (2024)

【Reasons for Selection (PDF in Japanese)】【Selected Paper (External link)】

Eitaro Nakada (Division of Earth System Science)

Intercomparison of bias of global sea surface temperature products associated with tropical cyclone passages in the western North Pacific

Eitaro Nakada, Hiroyuki Tomita
　Journal of Oceanography 81, 361–380 (2025)

【Reasons for Selection (PDF in Japanese)】【Selected Paper (External link)】

Takuma Niida (Division of Biosphere Science)

Trends in loss and retention of vision-related genes are similar between two trechine beetles independently colonizing caves

Takuma Niida, Hisashi Ashida, Shigeyuki Koshikawa
　Journal of Evolutionary Biology 38(9), 1197–1207 (2025)

【Reasons for Selection (PDF in Japanese)】【Selected Paper (External link)】

Sayuki Oka (Division of Environmental Materials Science)

Enantioselective Adsorption of Laccase on Homocysteine-Modified Au(111) Single-Crystalline Electrodes for Oxygen Reduction

Sayuki Oka, Masaru Kato, Ryuto Ohashi, Hisayoshi Matsushima, Aozora Sugai, Takahide Yamaguchi, Shogo Hoshino, Ichizo Yagi
　ACS Catalysis 15(21), 18572–18579 (2025)

【Reasons for Selection (PDF in Japanese)】【Selected Paper (External link)】

What is Matsuno Environmental Science Award?

The award is funded by a donation from Taro Matsuno, an emeritus professor of Hokkaido University who is one of the 2013 Blue Planet Prize laureates, and it is intended to honor students who have conducted outstanding research at the Graduate School of Environmental Science.

Candidates eligible for this award are current or former students at the Graduate School of Environmental Science, whose research papers as lead authors were published in peer-reviewed academic journals concerning research conducted at the Graduate School within the two years prior to the award year. Each year, the selection committee chooses up to four papers, and recipients receive a certificate, a medal, and a monetary prize.