Toru H. Okabe Explained

Toru H. Okabe (born December 4, 1965) is a Japanese scientist specializing in materials science, environmental science, resource circulation engineering, and rare metals process engineering, particularly for electronic waste.[1] His most recent work involves the advancement of new processing technology to recycle rare metals[2] [3] like niobium,[4] titanium,[5] yttrium,[6] rhenium,[7] neodymium,[8] other lanthanides and precious metals.[9] He is also involved in sustainable urban mining.[10]

Biography

Toru H. Okabe graduated from The Japanese School in London, in 1981, and from Senior High School at Otsuka, University of Tsukuba, Japan, in 1984.[11] He then received his Bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering, Metallurgy, from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1988 and 1990 respectively. Okabe pursued his doctoral studies in Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials Science, at Kyoto University, during which he developed processing techniques for reactive metals such as titanium and niobium. He received his PhD in 1993.

Supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS, Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad), Okabe took up residence for 3 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He then returned to Japan to become Research Associate at the Institute of Advanced Materials Processing, Tohoku University (currently known as the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, IMRAM) where he remained till the end of 2000.

In 2001, Okabe began his stint at the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, as an associate professor. He then progressed to professorship, and became the Vice President from 2019 to 2021. Presently, Okabe is serving as the Director-General of the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo.[12]

In 2021, Toru H. Okabe received the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), for working closely with researchers at NTNU for many years, and was appointed an Honorary Doctor at NTNU.[13]

Awards

  1. 14th Honda Memorial Silver Prize (Honda-kinen-shourei-shou) from the Honda Memorial Foundation in Tokyo, May 19, 1993
  2. 11th Inoue Research Prize (Inoue-kenkyu-shourei-shou) from the Inoue Foundation for Science in Tokyo, February 6, 1995
  3. 23rd Murakami Prize (Murakami-Shourei-shou) from the Murakami Memorial Foundation in Sendai, May 15, 2003
  4. The 38th Ichimura Prize in Technology–Meritorious Achievement Prize from The New Technology Development Foundation, April 28, 2006
  5. 65th JIM Meritorious Award from the Japan Institute of Metals at the 140th Spring meeting, Chiba, March 27, 2007
  6. 26th Technology Award (Gijutsu-shou) from The Japan Titanium Society, November 9, 2009
  7. 2012 Nikkei Global Environmental Technology Awards for the establishment of innovative approaches to the global environment, Nikkei Inc., November 7, 2012
  8. The 12th Green and Sustainable Chemistry Award (GSC Award), The Minister of the Environment Award (The Japan Association for Chemical Innovation (JACI), Green and Sustainable Chemistry Network (GSCN)), “Development of Green Recycling Technology for Rare Earth Metals,” June 6, 2013
  9. The ASM Henry Marion Howe Medal for 2013 for the paper titled, “Effective Dissolution of Platinum by Using Chloride Salts in Recovery Process,” ASM International (The Materials Information Society), Montreal, Canada, October 29, 2013[14]
  10. 13th Honda Frontier Prize (Honda-Frontier -shou) from the Honda Memorial Foundation, May 27, 2016
  11. 86th Hoko Prize (Hattori-Hoko-Shou) from the Hattori Hokokai Foundation, October 7, 2016.
  12. The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Prizes for Science and Technology, Public Understanding Promotion Category, April 17, 2019
  13. TMS Extraction & Processing Division Pyrometallurgy Best Paper Award, February 26, 2020[15]
  14. The Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at NTNU, Honorary Doctor of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), March 26, 2021
  15. The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Prizes for Science and Technology, Research Category, April 14, 2021

Noteworthy publications

Original articles

Review articles

Books

To see the full list of his books and publications click here.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Okabe Lab. -Resource Recovery and Materials Processing Engineering / Toru H. Okabe / Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo / Okabe Lab.. 2021-08-05. www.okabe.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
  2. Okabe. Toru H.. Hamanaka. Yuki. Taninouchi. Yu-ki. 2016-08-10. Direct oxygen removal technique for recycling titanium using molten MgCl2 salt. Faraday Discussions. en. 190. 109–126. 10.1039/C5FD00229J. 27244243. 2016FaDi..190..109O. 1364-5498. free.
  3. Okabe. Toru H.. 2017-04-03. Bottlenecks in rare metal supply and the importance of recycling – a Japanese perspective. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy. 126. 1–2. 22–32. 10.1080/03719553.2016.1268855. 132193676. 0371-9553.
  4. 1999-06-29. Production of niobium powder by electronically mediated reaction (EMR) using calcium as a reductant. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. en. 288. 1–2. 200–210. 10.1016/S0925-8388(99)00130-9. 0925-8388. Okabe. Toru H.. Park. Il. Jacob. K.T.. Waseda. Yoshio.
  5. Okabe. T. H.. Nakamura. M.. Oishi. T.. Ono. K.. 1993-06-01. Electrochemical deoxidation of titanium. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B. en. 24. 3. 449–455. 10.1007/BF02666427. 1993MTB....24..449O. 94832339. 1543-1916.
  6. 1996-04-15. Electrochemical deoxidation of yttrium-oxygen solid solutions. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. en. 237. 1–2. 150–154. 10.1016/0925-8388(95)02129-9. 0925-8388. Okabe. T.H.. Deura. T.N.. Oishi. T.. Ono. K.. Sadoway. D.R..
  7. Darjaa. Tsembel. Okabe. Toru H.. Waseda. Yoshio. Umetsu. Yoshiaki. 2000. Electro-Oxidation of Molybdenum Concentrate Using Bipolar Cell, and Recovery of Rhenium. Shigen-to-Sozai. 116. 6. 520–526. 10.2473/shigentosozai.116.520. free.
  8. Okabe. Toru H.. Takeda. Osamu. Fukuda. Kazuhiro. Umetsu. Yoshiaki. 2003. Direct Extraction and Recovery of Neodymium Metal from Magnet Scrap. Materials Transactions. 44. 4. 798–801. 10.2320/matertrans.44.798. free.
  9. Taninouchi. Yu-ki. Okabe. Toru H.. 2018-08-01. Recovery of Platinum Group Metals from Spent Catalysts Using Iron Chloride Vapor Treatment. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B. en. 49. 4. 1781–1793. 10.1007/s11663-018-1269-9. 2018MMTB...49.1781T. 1543-1916. free.
  10. Web site: The latest Olympic event -- urban mining. 2021-08-05. Nikkei Asia. en-GB.
  11. Web site: Curriculum Vitaes / Toru H. Okabe / Institute of Industrial Science, the. 2021-08-05. www.okabe.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
  12. Web site: Scope. 2021-08-05. Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo. en.
  13. Web site: Honorary Doctors - NTNU. 2021-08-05. www.ntnu.edu.
  14. Web site: ASM International HENRY MARION HOWE MEDAL.
  15. Web site: TMS 2020 EPD Pyrometallurgy Best Paper Award.. 2021-08-05. www.tms.org.

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