My life and carbon with excellent advisors, colleagues and students

My life and carbon with excellent advisors, colleagues and students

I started carbon research in April, 1958 as a graduate student in the laboratory of Prof. T. Noda at Nagoya University. My focus was on the graphitization of various carbon materials using X-ray diffraction. I worked on carbon materials at Nagoya University, Toyohashi University of Technology, Hokkaido University, Aichi Institute of Technology and then in my own home; I did this for more than 50 years. During this period, I fortunately met many excellent advisors, collaborators and students, and now have many good memories of them. In the beginning, I had to use hand-made X-ray diffraction equipment and I was so severely irradiated by X-rays that my doctor did not want to tell me how severely reduced was the number of my leucocytes (white blood), because he was afraid that I would be shocked. Before long, we were able to get an automatic diffractometer (Norelco) and could work under safer conditions. Prof. Noda was very generous, he supplied me with vitamin-B tablets to restore my leucocyte level, but regarding science, he was severe. At every meeting of the Carbon Society of Japan, he listened to speakers from the front row and asked frank questions. Frequently these questions were uncomfortable for the presenters. Even when I was presenting papers with him, he questioned my presentation.