Nobuhiro Yanai
The University of Tokyo
Biography
Born in Kobe, Japan, in 1983, Nobuhiro Yanai is Professor of Chemistry at The University of Tokyo, where he leads research at the interface of materials chemistry, photochemistry, spin science, and quantum technology. His career has been characterised by crossing disciplinary boundaries and creating new research directions through material design.
He received his BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from Kyoto University. During his doctoral studies with Prof. Susumu Kitagawa, he worked on metal–organic framework (MOF) chemistry, particularly polymer synthesis in nanopores and guest-property control in confined spaces. He then joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Steve Granick, where he studied the self-assembly of MOF colloids.
In 2012, Professor Yanai joined Kyushu University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. There, he made a bold transition into photochemistry. He developed highly efficient visible-to-ultraviolet and near-infrared-to-visible photon upconversion chromophores, as well as supramolecular and solid-state systems based on controlled chromophore assembly. He further demonstrated applications of these materials in photocatalysis, solar-energy conversion, and bioapplications including optogenetics.
He also extended triplet-state materials chemistry into dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). His group developed new triplet polarizing agents and demonstrated triplet-DNP in high-surface-area materials such as nanocrystals and MOFs, while expanding target substrates to important biomolecules and liquid water.
More recently, Nobuhiro's portrait research has moved into molecular quantum technology. His team introduced Molecular Quantum Nanosensors (MoQN) for intracellular quantum sensing, Quantum Nose for MOF-based chemical quantum sensing, and multilevel qubits based on singlet fission. These studies establish new opportunities for chemistry-driven quantum sensing and molecular quantum information science.
In 2024, he was appointed Professor at The University of Tokyo. He has received several honours, including the JSPS Prize (2024), RIGAKU-ACCC Rising Star Award (2024), MEXT Young Scientist Award (2021), and The APA Prize for Young Scientists (2021). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
RSC affiliations
Advisory board, Nanoscale Horizons
Advisory board, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers
Editorial board, Chemical Science