Kei Hirose

Kei Hirose serves as Professor of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Tokyo and was the founding Director of the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he has revolutionized our understanding of Earth's deep interior. His groundbreaking discovery of post-perovskite in 2004, hailed as the "most significant discovery in earth science in 30 years," provided crucial insights into the Earth's lowermost mantle composition at depths of 2,600 to 2,900 km. Through innovative high-pressure and high-temperature experiments, he achieved unprecedented laboratory conditions of 3.64 million atmospheric pressures and 5,000 K, successfully recreating conditions at Earth's core for the first time in history. His research has led to major revelations about Earth's evolution, including evidence that the inner core formation may have occurred more recently than previously thought - between 500 million to one billion years ago rather than 3.5 billion years ago. His contributions to earth science have been recognized through numerous honors, including the Japan Academy Prize and the Science Innovation Award of the European Association of Geochemistry, while his legacy is commemorated in the mineral hiroseite, a perovskite-type FeSiO3 named in his honor. Through his continued research at the University of Tokyo, he explores Earth's formation and evolution using ultrahigh pressure and temperature experiments with laser-heated diamond-anvil cells, advancing our understanding of planetary science and deep Earth processes.