Dr Masato Sagawa

Dr Sagawa has a BS and Masters in electrical engineering from Kobe University (1966) in Japan and a doctoral degree in materials science from Tohoku University (1972). He began his career as a research engineer at Fujitsu Ltd, in 1972, working on magnetic materials for electric relays. He worked on the Nd-Fe-B magnet as private research for five years, patenting it in the early 80s, before joining Sumitomo Special Metals Co in 1982.

In 1988 he founded Intermetallics Co. Ltd in Kyoto and became its president. He also founded NDFEB Corporation in 2013 for consultation services. Dr Sagawa is now retired but works as consultant for Daido Steel in order to put his latest new technology - which improves magnetic energy density and reduces the use of dysprosium for the thermal stability part of the process - into industrial production.

Dr Sagawa has received a number of awards for his work including the 2012 Japan Prize for “developing the world’s highest performing Nd-Fe-B type permanent magnet and contributing to energy conservation.” He is also the recipient of the Osaka Prize (1984) and the American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1986).