Susumu Kitagawa, Ph.D.

Profile

Born in 1951 in Kyoto, which is coincidentally where HORIBA’s headquarters is just 10 kilometers away, Kitagawa earned his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 1979. He advanced rapidly through academic and research roles, ultimately becoming Distinguished Professor at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), which he co-founded in 2007. His research introduced the concept of "soft porous crystals"—materials whose frameworks flex and respond dynamically to external stimuli such as gas adsorption, temperature, or pressure changes. Dr. Kitagawa has served as Executive Vice-President for Research Promotion at Kyoto University since 2024 and remains a leading voice in the chemistry of coordination spaces.

Nobel-Winning Contribution

The Nobel Committee recognized Dr. Kitagawa’s foundational work in designing and synthesizing MOFs—modular networks where metal ions serve as nodes connected by organic linkers. His key breakthrough, beginning in the early 1990s, was demonstrating that porous coordination polymers could reversibly adsorb and release gases without structural collapse, paving the way for gas storage, carbon capture, catalysis, and drug delivery applications. MOFs are now considered transformative materials for renewable energy, environmental remediation, and molecular storage due to their vast internal surface area and tunable chemistry.

Use of HORIBA Raman and Particle Instruments

Dr. Kitagawa’s collaborative research network has repeatedly utilized HORIBA analytical technologies in landmark studies spanning over a decade:

• Uemura et al., 2010, Nature Communications — Used HORIBA Jobin Yvon LabRAM HR800 micro-Raman spectrometer, updated with the LabRAM Odyssey, and HORIBA Partica LA-950 laser-diffraction particle-size analyzer, also updated with the LA-960V2; affiliations included Kyoto University, Nagoya University, and JST, confirming the use of HORIBA instruments in Kitagawa-led multilateral research.
• Hirai et al., 2012, Chemical Communications — Employed LabRAM HR-800, replaced by the LabRAM Odyssey Raman spectrometer (explicitly cited in supplementary data) in work linking Kyoto University, JST, and the National Institute for Materials Science.
• Koupepidou et al., 2023, Chemistry of Materials — Cited a HORIBA LabRAM 1A Raman spectrometer (with an Olympus BX40 microscope), now updated with the LabRAM Odyssey, in a study involving the University of Limerick, Kyoto University, and collaborators across Europe and Asia.

Together, these papers demonstrate the use of HORIBA Raman spectroscopy and particle analysis instrumentation (LabRAM HR800, LabRAM 1A, Partica LA-950, now updated to the LabRAM Odyssey and the LA-960V2) throughout Dr. Kitagawa’s collaborative research trajectory. While the specific physical locations of the instruments vary across multi-institutional platforms, its repeated use substantiates HORIBA technology’s role in the analytic foundation of Dr. Kitagawa’s Nobel-recognized porous materials research.