Professor Masatake Haruta is a world-renowned chemist celebrated for his transformative contributions to catalysis science, particularly in the domain of gold nanoparticle chemistry. Currently serving as Emeritus Professor and Research Adviser at Tokyo Metropolitan University's Research Center for Gold Chemistry, he has maintained a distinguished academic career spanning nearly five decades. After earning his Doctor of Engineering from Kyoto University in 1976, he began his research journey at the Osaka National Research Institute, where he steadily advanced to become Director of the Department of Energy and the Environment. Throughout his career, Professor Haruta has held prestigious appointments including Adjunct Professor at Osaka University and Guest Professor at the Technical University of Vienna, establishing his reputation as a global authority in heterogeneous catalysis research.
Professor Haruta's groundbreaking discovery of the catalytic properties of gold nanoparticles in the late 1980s revolutionized the field of catalysis, overturning long-standing assumptions that gold was catalytically inert. His seminal 1989 paper in the Journal of Catalysis demonstrating gold catalysts for low-temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen laid the foundation for an entirely new research direction that has since generated thousands of follow-up studies worldwide. This work has positioned gold-based catalysts as essential components in numerous environmental and industrial applications, including air purification systems and chemical manufacturing processes. Professor Haruta's research on gold clusters smaller than 2 nm has earned exceptional recognition, with his publications consistently ranking in the top 0.05 percent of all chemistry literature globally by citation impact.
As Research Adviser for Tokyo Metropolitan University's Research Center for Gold Chemistry, Professor Haruta continues to shape the field through international collaborations and mentorship of emerging scientists. His leadership extends globally through the Gold Catalyst Research Center he established at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China, fostering international scientific exchange. In 2012, his extraordinary impact was recognized when he received the prestigious Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate, an honor that has accurately predicted numerous Nobel Prize winners. Professor Haruta's work exemplifies how fundamental chemical research can drive sustainable technological innovation, with his gold catalyst discoveries contributing significantly to cleaner industrial processes and environmental protection worldwide.
