KYOTO, JAPAN June 19: The Inamori Foundation today announced chemist Tsutomu Miyasaka as the recipient of its 2026 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for his world-leading contributions to the development of perovskite solar cells. The Kyoto Prize, Japan’s highest private award for global achievement, is awarded annually in the categories of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.
A New Frontier in Solar Energy
Miyasaka will receive the award for his contributions to the creation of next-generation photovoltaic technologies, including perovskite solar cells, opening a new frontier in high-efficiency photovoltaic conversion through solution-based coating processes. His innovation contrasts sharply with traditional silicon solar cells, the global standard for more than half a century. While today’s rigid silicon solar cells require a silicon layer about 100 microns thick, Miyasaka’s flexible perovskite-based solar cells can function with a perovskite layer of just a few microns in thickness, or even less.
Perovskite solar cells, first proposed by Miyasaka in 2006, exploit the exceptional light-absorption characteristics of an organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskite. They open new opportunities to use mobile platforms, walls and other surfaces for solar electric power generation, expanding renewable energy deployment beyond the limits of silicon panels.
While conventional silicon solar cells already offer proven reliability, low levelized cost of electricity, and conversion efficiency exceeding 26%, perovskite cells offer new complementing potential. Tandem solar cells combining perovskite and silicon have already surpassed 30% in energy conversion efficiency, drawing global interest as a way to accelerate renewable energy adoption using existing infrastructure.
Project Professor at Toin University of Yokohama, and Specially Appointed Professor at Waseda University, Miyasaka has received a wide range of career honors, including the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics, Japan Academy Prize, Asahi Prize, and others.
In addition to Miyasaka, other laureates of the 2026 Kyoto Prizes include marine microbiologist Farooq Azam, receiving the award in Basic Sciences for his discovery of the oceanic microbial loop; and multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, receiving the prize in Arts and Philosophy for her lifelong contributions to experimental music and the performing arts.
Each laureate will receive a diploma, a 20-karat gold medal, and a monetary award of 100 million yen (more than US$600,000) during the 41st annual Kyoto Prize ceremony, Nov. 10 in Kyoto. Laureates will later convene for the 26th annual Kyoto Prize Symposium in San Diego, Calif. in March 2027, and the Kyoto Prize at Oxford events in Oxford, UK, in May 2027.