Kazuhiro Hono is President of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in materials science and engineering from Tohoku University, and his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1988. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined the Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University before moving to NIMS in 1995. During his 27-year research career at NIMS, he served as Director of the Research Center for Magnetic and Spintronic Materials, NIMS Fellow, and Executive Vice President, before becoming President in 2022.
Dr. Hono’s research focuses on microstructure–property relationships in metallic materials, using atom probe tomography (APT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), with particular emphasis on rare-earth permanent magnets, nanocrystalline soft magnets, FePt-based heat-assisted magnetic recording media, and spintronic materials. He was also a professor at the University of Tsukuba until 2022, supervising 34 Ph.D. students.

Early work focused on nanoscale characterization of metallic materials using atom-probe field ion microscopy (APFIM) and three-dimensional atom probe (3DAP), contributing to improved understanding of structure–property relationships in a wide range of alloys. Research also addressed microstructural evolution and property development in engineering materials, and included involvement in establishing laser-assisted 3DAP, enabling 3DAP analyses of insulating materials using a UV laser. Atomic-scale analysis of solute-cluster precipitation in aluminum alloys by 3DAP further advanced understanding of microstructure formation. More recently, similar approaches have been extended to magnesium alloys, leading to alloy-design concepts aimed at achieving both heat-treatment strengthening and good formability through control of solute-atom clustering. Additional work has pursued atomic-level characterization of amorphous alloys and their crystallization processes, including elucidation of the crystallization mechanism in Fe–Si–B–Nb–Cu amorphous alloys, providing insights relevant to the development of nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials.


Since 2008, research has addressed challenges associated with the use of Dy in Nd–Fe–B permanent magnets. Multiscale analyses combining electron microscopy and 3DAP have been used to deepen understanding of coercivity mechanisms. Building on these findings, contributions were made to the development of a grain-boundary diffusion process using low-melting eutectic alloys, demonstrating the potential for significantly enhancing coercivity in Nd–Fe–B magnets without Dy.
Systematic TEM studies of FePt thin-film nanostructures also supported the development of FePt–C nanogranular perpendicular thin films, informing subsequent work on media concepts for heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). Further efforts have included exploration of highly spin-polarized ferromagnetic Heusler alloys and improving magnetoresistance through atomic-level control of device interfaces, contributing to the advancement of magnetic and spintronic applications.