Kenichi Honda

Kenichi Honda was a Japanese chemist. He made a significant contribution to the discovery and characterization of photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide, for which he shared the 2004 Japan Prize with his former student Akira Fujishima.

Biography

In 1949 Honda received his bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo. He then spent several years in France, where he defended a PhD in 1957 at the University of Paris. After returning to Japan he obtained a second doctorate degree, from the University of Tokyo in 1961. He then worked as a lecturer and professor at the University of Tokyo and at Kyoto University. In 1989 he moved to the Tokyo Polytechnic University and served as its president in 1996–2004.

Research

In the late 1960s Honda and his doctorate student Akira Fujishima discovered the Honda-Fujishima effect - photocatalytic water decomposition upon exposing a titanium dioxide electrode to strong light. For this discovery, published in 1972, Honda and Fujishima received the 2004 Japan Prize.