SPST Board of Directors

The SPST Board of Directors, as the Society’s principal governing body, is responsible for overseeing all Society affairs. The Board consists of seven members.

Currently, Takeo Watanabe is the Executive Advisor to the President of the University of Hyogo (in charge of promoting advanced science and technology and interdisciplinary research), Vice Dean of the Laboratory of Advanced Science and Technology for Industry, Director of the Center for EUVL, and a Full Professor. Since 1993, he has been engaged in research and development of basic technology for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). Up to now, he participated in and led four national projects for 20 years, and the results of joint research with many domestic and overseas companies led to the application of EUVL as a mass production technology for 7-nm-node-logic devices in 2019. He published more than 240 papers in this field.

Since 1990, he has been engaged in the development of basic technology for semiconductor microfabrication for advanced DRAM at the Central Research and Development Laboratory of Sharp Corporation. In 1996, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at Himeji Institute of Technology (currently the University of Hyogo), and since then has been researching and developing advanced nanofabrication technology for advanced semiconductors, including photoresists, exposure equipments, and EUV masks etc.

At the photopolymer international conference, he served as a member of the organizing committee, a member of the program committee, EUVL symposium chair, the Board of Directors and Director of the International Affairs. From September 2022, he took over the position of the new president of the Society of Photopolymers (SPST). He hopes that SPST will serve as a place for exchanges in the field of photopolymers, as well as inheriting the thoughts of the former chairman on photopolymers. 

Teruaki Hayakawa is the Professor of Institute of Science Tokyo. 

Seiji Nagahara serves as Vice President and Board Member of the Society of Photopolymer Science and Technology (SPST). Currently, he is Head of Technical Marketing at ASML Japan. Previously, he held key roles at Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL), Renesus Electronics and NEC, focusing on next-generation lithography and tool/process development. His career includes collaborative research with institutions like Toshiba, IMEC in Belgium, UC Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and EIDEC. He holds a Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. in Engineering from Osaka University, Japan and is SPIE Fellow.

SHINJI YAMAKAWA, Director of Publication（山川 進二　国際学術誌出版委員長）

Shinji Yamakawa is Assoc. Professor of University of Hyogo.

Haruyuki Okamura has been the Associate Professor at Osaka Metropolitan University since Apr. 2022. He received the Ph.D. degree  from Kyoto University in Nov. 1998. He worked at Osaka Prefecture University as assistant professor from Jan. 1999. Since Oct. 2011, He has been an associate professor. He was also a visiting scholar at Cornell University from Aug. 2009 to Mar. 2010. His research interests are polymer chemistry, photoresist and degradation. Since April 2024, he has been the SPST director of publication.

Itaru Osaka received his doctoral degree from University of Tsukuba in 2002. After a 4-year research stint at Fujifilm, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Carnegie Mellon University in 2006–2009. He then started his professional carrier at Hiroshima University as an Assistant Professor in 2009, and moved to RIKEN as a Senior Research Scientist in 2013. He was appointed as a Professor at Hiroshima University in 2016. He has been awarded The Society of Polymer Science Japan Hitachi Chemical Award in 2013 and The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work for 2022. He has been an Executive Editor of Polymer Journal since 2018. His research interests include design and synthesis of π-conjugated materials, in particular, π-conjugated polymers for organic electronics such as field-effect transistors and solar cells. He has been the ICPST director of awards since 2022.

 Hiroto Kudo is the Professor of Department of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Kansai University.

He received a Doctorate in polymer chemistry from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan in 2000. He did postdoctoral research at the Venture Business Laboratory at Yamagata University, Japan during 2000–2001. In his career at Kanagawa University, he has progressed from Research Associate (2001) to Assistant Professor (2007), and Associate Professor (2009).  In 2013, he moved to Kansai University as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2015.  His current research interests include synthesis of new functional polymers applicable to EUV resists, UV-curing materials, high and low-refractive indices materials.　Since 2021, he has been a member of the ICPST director.  

Masataka Endo is the Specially Appointed Professor of Osaka University.

Takashi Karatsu is the Professor of Department of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology, Chiba University.

Takumi Ueno is the Specially Appointed Professor of Shinshu University.

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