Hiroo INOKUCHI Hall just opened

Toyota Physical and Chemical Research Institute (TPCRI) (Aichi, Japan) established the Hiroo INOKUCHI Hall in May, 2018 in honor of Dr. Hiroo Inokuchi who has made significant contributions to the progress of science and technology in Japan and the development of Toyota Physical and Chemical Research Institute.

Dr. Inokuchi discovered “organic semiconductor” running electricity after conducting lots of experiments challenging the common knowledge (late 1940s) that the organic materials never run electricity. Dr. Inokuchi made outstanding contributions on the development of organic molecules electronics that we see nowadays the thin film display as in organic electroluminescent (EL) T.V.

He received the 2007 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for “Pioneering and Fundamental Contributions to Organic Molecular Electronics.” In the Hiroo INOKUCHI Hall, several goods in relation to the Kyoto Prize presented by him are displayed.

He passionately talked in the Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture about what he had learned from his schoolteachers and older students, and of his first encounter with carbon black, his graduation experiment theme, both of which were to become major influences on the theme of his life work, organic semiconductors. (Please refer to the full text of his lecture.)