Background
Kobayashi was born in 1943. Her mother was a musician and her father was a physicist.
小林 昭子
Kobayashi was born in 1943. Her mother was a musician and her father was a physicist.
Kobayashi graduated with a B.Sc from the University of Tokyo, Department of Chemistry in 1967 and earmed her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo in 1972.
She is the designer and creator of Ni(tmdt)2, the world"s first single-component molecular metal. Staying at the university, she became a research associate (1972), associate professor (1993), and full professor (1999). In 2006, Kobayashi became a Professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and accepted a position at Nihon University.
She was a 2009 L"Oréal-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Awards for Women in Science laureate, "for her contribution to the development of molecular conductors and the design and synthesis of a single-component organic metal".
The metal in question is known as "Ni(tmdt)2", where "tmdt" is short for trimethylenetetrathiafulvalenedithiolate. This organic metal has unusual properties including the ability to exhibit metallic properties at just 0.6 of a degree above absolute zero.
This material is paramagnetic and is attracted to magnetic fields at nearly every temperature below room temperature. The implications of Kobayashi"s work is part of an emerging family of new materials with interesting and exploitable properties.
Kobayashi"s first discovery was based on nickel.
Since then variations based on zinc and copper have been created and studied.