Maki Kawai

is a Japanese chemist who developed spatially selective single-molecule spectroscopy. In 2018, she became the first woman to become president of the Chemical Society of Japan.

Early life and education Kawai earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Tokyo in 1975. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Tokyo in 1980. She joined the University of Tokyo as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellow in 1982. Her group use STM to monitor molecules and atoms on top of surfaces. She uses this to understand the chemical and physical phenomena of nanowires, nanodots and biomolecules. Her group monitor the vibrational and relaxation energies of single molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy and inelastically tunnelled electrons. She has contributed to several books and hundreds of peer-reviewed publications. Kawai continued to be supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, investigating nanoscale electron transport through molecular layers. By combining single molecule spectroscopy (using scanning tunneling spectroscopy) with inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy to identify electron transfer channels.

Kawai became Chief Scientist and Director of Surface Chemistry Laboratory at Riken in 1991 and an executive director in 2010. She was made a professor at the University of Tokyo in 2004.

Awards and honours

2021: Person of Cultural Merit 2020: Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist 2019: L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards 2018: Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) 2018: Kiel University Diels-Planck Lecture 2017: Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government 2016: American Vacuum Society Medard W. Welch Award 2015: IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry / Chemical Engineering 2015: Max Planck Society Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award 2012: Mukai Award, Japan