Mitsuo Tasumi
Born(1937-01-23)January 23, 1937
Nishinomiya, Japan
DiedNovember 24, 2021(2021-11-24) (aged 84)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo
Known forPhonon dispersion of polyethylene.[1]
Professor, University of Tokyo
President, Saitama University
AwardsOrder of the Sacred Treasure (Japan)
Purple Ribbon Medal (Japan)[2]
Ellis R. Lippincott Award of Optical Society of America[3]
Prize of the Chemical Society of Japan[4]
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of Tokyo
Saitama University
University of Michigan
Polytechnic University of Milan
University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisorTakehiko Shimanouchi

Mitsuo Tasumi (January 23, 1937 – November 24, 2021) was a Japanese physical chemist known for his vibrational spectroscopic works on synthetic and biological macromolecules.[2] He was Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, and a former president of Saitama University, having trained a number of physical chemists active in academia and industry.[3] Moto-o Tasumi, a zoologist at Kyoto University, was his brother.

Career

Tasumi earned his B.Sc. (1959), M.Sc. (1961) and Ph.D. (1964) from the University of Tokyo in the laboratories of San-Ichiro Mizushima and of Takehiko Shimanouchi, where he reported the first phonon dispersion of polyethylene.[1] He spent the subsequent 33 years (1964–97) as a faculty member initially in the Department of Biochemistry and then in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Tokyo. During this period, he spent a year (1965–66) at University of Michigan as a Fulbright scholar in the laboratory of Samuel Krimm and another year (1966–67) at Polytechnic University of Milan as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Giuseppe Zerbi under Giulio Natta, a Nobel laureate.[5]

At the University of Tokyo, Tasumi led a large group of spectroscopists, developing new experimental and computational techniques of infrared spectroscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy.[2] He is known for establishing the theoretical basis for interpreting the spectra of synthetic polymers (including electrical conductive polymers), proteins, and photosynthetic systems to elucidate their relationship with the structural, thermal, mechanical, transport, and response properties. He published several papers[6] with Hideki Shirakawa, who was awarded a Nobel Prize jointly with Alan MacDiarmid and Alan Heeger. He was among the earliest spectroscopists who saw the great utility of ab initio electronic structure calculations in understanding vibrational spectra. In particular, he established a steady-state spectroscopic method that can determine the structures and dynamics of electronic excited states by resonance Raman excitation profile, and applied it to polyenes including carotenoids. At the same time, he made important contributions to the development and applications of time-resolved vibrational spectroscopies. He is a co-author of the Protein Data Bank[7] and the editor/author of "Introduction to Experimental Infrared Spectroscopy: Fundamentals and Practical Methods."[8]

In 2004–08, Tasumi was the President of Saitama University after serving as Professor of Chemistry (1996-2002) of Saitama University and as Visiting Professor (2002–03) at University of California, Berkeley (stayed at the laboratory of Herbert Strauss).

In 1987–89, Tasumi was a member of the Board of Directors of the Chemical Society of Japan.[9] In 1994–2000, he was an Executive Committee Member of CODATA.[10] In 1997–99, he was the president of the Spectroscopical Society of Japan.[11]

Honors and awards

References

  1. 1 2 Tasumi M, Shimanouchi T, Miyazawa, T (1962). "Normal vibrations and force constants of polymethylene chain". Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy. 9: 261–287. doi:10.1016/0022-2852(62)90236-9.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Atkinson GH, Furukawa Y, Okamoto, H (2002). "Scientific Contributions of Mitsuo Tasumi". Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 106 (14): 3253–3254. Bibcode:2002JPCA..106.3253.. doi:10.1021/jp020202c.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "OSA Living History: Mitsuo Tasumi". Optical Society of America.
  4. 1 2 "CSJ Award 1999-1980". Chemical Society of Japan.
  5. ↑ Atkinson GH, Furukawa Y, Okamoto, H (2002). "Biography of Mitsuo Tasumi - Questions by the Guest Editors and Answers by Mitsuo Tasumi". Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 106 (14): 3255–3257. Bibcode:2002JPCA..106.3255.. doi:10.1021/jp0202035.
  6. ↑ Harada I, Furukawa Y, Tasumi M, Shirakawa H, Ikeda S (1980). "Spectroscopic studies on doped polyacetylene and β-carotene". Journal of Chemical Physics. 73 (10): 4746. doi:10.1063/1.440007.
  7. ↑ Bernstein FC, Koetzle TF, Williams G, Meyer EF, Brice MD, Rodgers JR, Kennard O, Shimanouchi T, Tasumi M (1977). "The protein data bank: A computer-based archival file for macromolecular structures". Journal of Molecular Biology. 112 (3): 535–542. doi:10.1016/S0022-2836(77)80200-3. PMID 875032.
  8. ↑ "Introduction to Experimental Infrared Spectroscopy: Fundamentals and Practical Methods". Wiley.
  9. 1 2 3 "Researchmap: Mitsuo Tasumi". National Institute of Informatics (Japan).
  10. ↑ "CODATA Newsletter Number 79, March 1999". CODATA.
  11. ↑ "List of Past Presidents (in Japanese)". Spectroscopical Society of Japan.
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