The recipient of the 4th Asada Award, which is presented in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Akiko Hokura (Tokyo Denki Univ., "Study on accumulation of heavy metals in phytoremediation plant by synchrotron radiation micro XRF imaging and XAFS analysis"). From this year, the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry decided to establish the special award to recognize scientists who exhibit outstanding achievement and make a substantial contribution to the advancement of the X-ray analysis field. The recipient of the special award 2009 is Dr. Toshio Shiraiwa, who contributed greatly in the early days of X-ray absorption spectroscopy by means of his short-range order theory ("The theory of the fine structure of the X-ray absorption spectrum", J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 13, 847 (1958)) and also provided the basis of the fundamental parameter method in X-ray fluorescence by Fujino-Shiraiwa's formula ("Theoretical calculation of fluorescent X-ray intensities in fluorescent X-ray spectrochemical analysis", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 5, 886 (1966)) The ceremony was held during the 45th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Osaka City University, Osaka.
From right to left: A. Hokura, T. Shiraiwa, S. Ikeda, H. Wakita and H. Hayashi.
