Prof Hidero Unuma obtained his Ph.D in 1993 from Kyoto University. He then spent one year at the University of California, Los Angeles- USA as Visiting scholar. He moved in 1995 to Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan as Associate Professor, In 1999, he joined Yamagata University, Japan. He is member of the Editorial board of the Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan.

He obtained several Awards including:

• 1996 Taro Yamashita Award for Young Scientists (Taro Yamashita Foundation)
• 1997 1997 JCerSJ Distinguished Paper Award (The Ceramic Society of Japan)
• 2002 Advanced Powder Technology Distinguished Paper Award (The Society of Powder Technology, Japan)

The research of Prof Hidero Unuma focuses on:

• Ceramic processing using aqueous solutions (thin film deposition, enzyme-aided precipitation)
• Processing of electronic ceramics (ceramic capacitors, varistors, semiconductors)
• Thermoelectric materials (powder processing, exploring new oxide materials)
• Utilization of natural resources (zeolites, silica source