Tokyo Tech’s annual ‘Seiichi Tejima Research Award’ recognises the outstanding research and writing achievements by the research staff and students. The recognition comprises awards in six categories, the Research Paper Award, Doctoral Dissertation Award, International Student Research Award, Invention Award, Young Research Award (Fujino / Nakamura Award), and Writing Award. ELSI’s Tony Z. Jia (Specially Appointed Assistant Professor) received the ‘Fujino-Nakamura Young Researcher Award’ for his work on "Polyester microdroplets as primitive membraneless protocell models" at the award ceremony on April 11th.

The award is named after Seiichi Tejima who devoted his career to the advancement of engineering education in Japan. He also served for over 25 years as the principal of the two preceding schools of Tokyo Institute of Technology. After his retirement in 1917, a foundation was setup to carry the legacy, which later established the ‘Seiichi Tejima Research Awards’ to recognise the excellent research and publication contributions by the university members.

“An essential part of my research is the quest for and creation of new knowledge and understanding. The quality of the research conducted is a key to achieving this effectively. I'm honoured to have my work recognised by the university,” says Jia.