What is a Liquid Beam?

Tamotsu Kondow, born in Chiba, Japan, in 1936, was educated at the University of Tokyo and received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1967. After a JSPS Fellowship he was appointed to a research associate of the University of Tokyo. He remained there as Professor of physical chemistry until he retired in 1997. After, he accepted his current position from the Toyota Technological Institute and is studying cluster science with many colleagues who worked together at the University of Tokyo. As one of the pioneers of the cluster science, he has been awarded The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work (1986) and the Humboldt Research Award (2005), among others.

Fumitaka Mafuné was born in Yokohama in Japan in 1966. His initial training took place at the University of Tokyo (B.A. 1989, D.Sci. 1994), where he started a liquid beam experiment with Tamotsu Kondow. He continued his study in the University of Tokyo as a research associate before leaving for the Toyota Technological Institute in 1997. In 2003 he took his current position of Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo.

Jun-ya Kohno, born in Tokyo in 1969, received his degrees (B.S. 1992, M.S. 1994) from the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Tamotsu Kondow. He studied lubricants in the Central Technical Research Laboratory of the Nippon Oil Company (1994–1998) before joining the Genesis Research Institute in 1998. He received his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Tokyo under the guidance of KaoruYamanouchi. His current research interest is focussed on dynamics of reactions in solutions initiated by laser excitation.