Takashi Taniguchi

is a Japanese material scientist. He is a fellow and the Director of the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). He is also a former President of the High Pressure Science Society of Japan.

Taniguchi is an expert in crystal growth and has published numerous co-authored papers with Kenji Watanabe and others. Their laboratory is the primary source of high-quality hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) crystals, used widely as a substrate for various two-dimensional materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. He was featured in Nature as one of the “most prolific researchers.”.

Early life and education Taniguchi was born in Tokyo. He graduated from the Department of Industrial Chemistry at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 1982. He obtained a master's degree in materials science in 1984 and a Doctor of Engineering degree in 1987, both from Tokyo Tech (now the Institute of Science Tokyo). In 1994, he served as a visiting researcher at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of London.

He served as President of the High Pressure Science Society of Japan in 2015,

He has also served as an Affiliated Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, and as a visiting professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo.

National Institute for Materials Science In 2001, he was appointed Senior Researcher at the Ultra-High Pressure Station of the Materials Research Institute at the National Institute for Materials Science. In 2006, he became Group Leader of the Ultra-High Pressure Group in the Nano Materials Laboratory at NIMS.

Awards and honors 2016 – Thomson Reuters Research Front Award 2017 – Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Commendation for Science and Technology (Research Category) 2017 – Highly cited researcher Clarivate Analysis 2018 – Highly cited researcher Clarivate Analysis 2018 – High Pressure Science Society of Japan Award 2019 – Ceramic Society of Japan Award 2022 – Clarivate Citation Laureates 2023 – James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials 2023 – Ichimura Academic Award 2023 – Ibaraki Prefecture Special Meritorious Service Award 2024 – Asahi Prize 2024 – Tsukuba Prize 2025 – Medal with Purple Ribbon, from the Government of Japan 2026 – GLOBAL GRAPHENE & 2D CARBON LAUREATE • 2026