Members

Dr. Kirill Mitrofanov (Staff Scientist)
Email: kirill.mitrofanov at oist.jp

Dr. Kirill Mitrofanov graduated from Ryazan State Radio Engineering Institute in 2008. In 2012 he defended his thesis on the topic of the chalcogenide semiconductors phase change process. From August 2012 he began to work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Functional Materials Group (currently Systematic Materials Design Group) of the Nanoelectronics Research Institute in the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Mitrofanov carried out multiple studies in x-ray absorption near edge structure and extended x-ray absorption fine structure experimental techniques within experimental proposals at SPring-8 synchrotron (Japan) on such topics as resistivity drift in phase-change memory and atomic and the electronic structure of topological crystalline insulators. Dr. Mitrofanov also studied structural evolution processes in chalcogenide phase-change materials by means of ultrafast time-resolved diffraction using a hard x-ray free electron laser. During his work as a research staff in AIST, Dr. Mitrofanov worked on the fabrication and optimization of phasechange random access memory based on Ge-Sb-Te compounds and interfacial phasechange memory devices based on chalcogenide superlattices utilizing electric and magnetic fields induced switching phenomena. From 2020 he joined the Organic Optoelectronics Unit team in OIST (Okinawa, Japan).
ORCID: 0000-0002-2775-4123

Dr. Liliia Moshniaha (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Email: liliia.moshniaha at oist.jp

Liliia is from Vinnytsia, a city located in the central part of Ukraine. After finish school, she moved to Wroclaw (Poland) for studying. She graduated Wroclaw University in 2022, where she first worked in Theoretic Modeling of Chemical Processes Group, and since 2016 joined the Organic Synthesis Unit (prof. Stępień). She obtained her PhD for the synthesis and exploration of oligopyrrole materials, such as expanded azacoronenes and bipyrroles. While being a member of Stępień Research Group, Liliia was a PI of a project 'Double C–H Bond Activation: A New Tool For The Synthesis Of Extensively Conjugated Oligopyrroles' granted by Polish National Science Centre. She likes to work on synthesis of beautiful and complicated structures, ones that seem to be impossible to obtain.

Dr. Dominik Madea (Research Fellow)
Email: dominik.madea at oist.jp

Dominik was born in Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic in 1994. He graduated from Masaryk University, Brno in 2022 under the supervision of prof. Petr Klán. He focused on the photochemistry of bilirubin and its subunits, and, especially on the isomerization and photooxidation of the subunits which he studied using steady state and transient spectroscopy techniques and other common analytical techniques. Also, during his Ph.D. studies he stayed in Hiroshima University, Japan for 1 year in the group of prof. Manabu Abe where he was studying the short-living biradical intermediates. In 2022, he received a Jean-Marie Lehn price from French embassy. In October 2023, he joined the Kabe unit team in OIST, Okinawa, Japan thanks to Experientia scholarship from Experientia foundation, Czech Republic.

Dr. Ruttapol Malatong (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Email: ruttapol.malatong at oist.jp

Dr. Ruttapol Malatong (Kap) was born in 1994 in Sakonnakhon, Thailand. His PhD. was conferred in 2023 from Institute for Molecular Science, Japan and Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Thailand. Through his PhD course, he intensively focused on i) overcrowded alkene-based molecular motor which observes large spin polarization referred to as “chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS)” effect and ii) organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), where he conducted in synthesis, characterization, and device fabrication of deep-blue emissive materials. Having obtained his PhD., He has joined the Organic Optoelectronics Unit of Kabe team in November 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher in Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Okinawa, Japan.
ORCID: 0000-0001-6180-5433

Rengo Yoshioka
Email: rengo.yoshioka at oist.jp

Rengo Yoshioka graduated from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) in 2020. He was working to investigate photoreaction mechanisms of molecular complexes at the Graduate school of BASE in TUAT. He joined Organic Optoelectronics Unit in March 2021 as a research internship, then became a PhD student from September 2021.

Dmitry Kovalevskiy
Email: dmitry.kovalevskiy at oist.jp

Dmitry Kovalevskiy was born in Rostov-on-don, a city in the South West of Russia. After completing 9 grades at school, Dmitry moved to the UK with his family and continued his studies at Lancing College in England. After finishing college he went to study Chemical Physics at the University of Bristol in 2017. He graduated with a Master's degree in 2021. Dmitry's Master's project was in the area of solar cells based on bismuth compounds under the supervision of Professor David Fermin. He joined the Organic Optoelectronics Unit in April 2022 as a PhD student for his first lab rotation.

Kaede Kawaguchi
Email: kaede.kawaguchi at oist.jp

Kaede Kawaguchi was born in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan in 2000. He lived in Suzhou, China for four years and moved to Nagano, Japan. After that, he moved to Tokyo, Japan and graduated National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tokyo college with an associate degree in 2020. His project was electrochemical CO2 reduction with heteroatom-doped carbon nanomaterials. Then he moved to Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2022. His bachelor’s project was investigation of the emission mechanism of pure organic room-temperature phosphorescence materials under the supervision of Professor Yuji Kubo. He joined Organic Optoelectronics Unit at OIST in January 2024.
ORCID: 0000-0003-3353-0393

Yuxiang Guan
Email: yuxiang.guan at oist.jp

Yuxiang Guan was born in Lianyungang, a seaside city in the Southeast of China. He graduated with a master’s degree from Soochow University in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Xiaofeng Li. His master’s project mainly focused on the physical simulation of photoelectric conversion devices and the experimental preparation of perovskite solar cells. He joined the Organic Optoelectronics Unit in September 2024 as a PhD student at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Okinawa, Japan.
ORCID: 0009-0006-8980-003X

Huynh Tam Minh Hieu
Email: tam.huynh at oist.jp

Huynh Tam Minh Hieu (Hieu Huynh) graduated from Fulbright University Vietnam in June 2024 and joined the Organic Optoelectronics Unit as an intern researcher in October 2024. His research primarily involves utilizing quantum simulations and data-driven models to explore the structure-property relationships of materials at the molecular level, with a specific focus on Lewis acid-base interactions and organic semiconductors.

Emiko Asato
Email: easato at oist.jp

Emiko Asato is from Itoman, a city the southern most of Okinawa Island. After Itoman high school, she lived in Nagasaki, Quanzhou (China), Guangzhou (China), Tokyo, Guam, Okinawa, Gold Coast (Australia) then Okinawa. She has been working as a research unit administrator at OIST for the Neural Computation Unit (2004-2021) and the Organic Optoelectronics Unit (2020- present). She enjoys Kenjutsu and Aikido after work.