Fuminori Mizuno

Fuminori Mizuno is currently a project general manager at Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC). He received a PhD (2006) in applied material science from the Osaka Prefecture University (Japan) under guidance of his supervisor, Prof. Tatsumisago. He majored in inorganic material science and in particular, he intensively studied the uniqueness of amorphous materials. His research thesis was titled “sulfide-based lithium-ion conducting solid electrolytes and their application to all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries”. Over 30 published papers related to this thesis have been reported so far. In 2005, he studied abroad at Arizona State University (USA) to learn about protonic ionic liquids under guidance of Prof. Angell. Since 2006, Dr. Mizuno has been employed at TMC, where he served most recently as a project leader. He was mainly engaged in the research of lithium-air batteries, with particular emphasis on understanding the cathode reaction mechanism in non-aqueous type system, by focusing on electrolytes and carbon as a cathode material. In 2012, Dr. Mizuno was dispatched to Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRI-NA) where he served as the leader of battery projects. His interests were continuously post lithium-ion battery technologies such as magnesium battery, sodium battery and innovative lithium-air battery. He was energetically done the work, and as a result, he has reported around 50 papers related with the post lithium-ion battery technologies. In 2016, he returned to TMC, leading the research & development of the all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries with sulfide solid electrolytes as a project manager. His team has successfully accumulated and enhanced such knowledge and skills, and then manufactured the batteries in a prototype production line, finally installing the battery pack into a prototype vehicle which can run on public roads. Now, he has been managing R&D activities of next generation all-solid-state batteries as project general manager.