Prof. Takuma Kureha received his PhD (2018) from Shinshu University through a JSPS Research Fellowship (DC1, 2015-2018) on the synthesis of functional nanogels conducted under the supervision of Prof. Daisuke Suzuki. He then worked as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow (PD) at the Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo under the supervision of Prof. Mitsuhiro Shibayama, and since 2020, he has been leading an independent research life as an Assistant Professor at Hirosaki University. His current research interests include characterization of hydrogels and nanogels by scattering methods to control their functions. Prof. Daisuke Suzuki obtained his PhD from Keio University (2007), before he went on to conduct postdoctoral studies at the University of Tokyo (2007-2009) as a JSPS research fellow (PD). He started his independent research career at Shinshu University in 2009 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. He is a research representative of the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) project. His current research is focused on the design, synthesis, and assembly of soft hydrogel and elastomer microspheres. His awards include the SPSJ Award for outstanding papers in Polymer Journal (sponsored by ZEON), the Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science from the Society of Polymer Science (Japan), and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Young Scientists Prize (Japan).
