Associate Professor YAMAZAKI Daisuke of the Institute for Planetary Materials (Misasa, Tottori), was selected as the 21st awardee of the Japan Association of Mineralogical Sciences (JAMS) Award, 2018, and received the award at the 2019 Annual Meeting of JAMS held in the Ito Campus of Kyushu University during September 20 – 22, 2019.
(Title: Study of the dynamics of the core and mantle based on the rheology of constituent materials and the associated technological development of high-pressure experiments)

Associate Professor Yamazaki was highly regarded for his achievement in contributing to understanding of plastic deformation mechanisms of minerals under high pressure and high temperature and the flow properties of the deep Earth via the following researches that are based on experiments using high-pressure facilities:
1) Technical development for high-pressure generation and high-pressure deformation;
2) Flow law of the lower-mantle that consists of two types of minerals（two-phase system);
3) Rheology of the high-pressure phase of iron, the dominant component of the Earth’s core;
4) Other studies of the lower mantle

In particular, for the technical development of the generation of ultra-high pressure, he succeeded in generating 120 GPa, a world record, using sintered-diamond anvils (that are made of sintered diamond particles) on large-volume high-pressure apparatus, for which the institute has been traditionally strong. This enables precise experiments under the high-temperature and pressure condition of the deep Earth using large-volume high-pressure apparatus.

Associate Professor Yamazaki enthusiastically commented that “I am truly honored to receive the award. This was possible thanks to the efforts of the many mentors and collaborative researchers. I will endeavor to further promote research based on experimental approach.”