Rate My Professor Kouki Oka

Kouki Oka is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials at Tohoku University. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from Waseda University in March 2021. His research focuses on organic functional materials, polymer materials, and energy chemistry, with work centered on the development of porous organic polymers, redox-active materials, and related applications in energy storage and conversion.

Oka has held his current position at Tohoku University since April 2025, with concurrent appointments including roles at the Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Science. He maintains additional affiliations such as visiting lecturer at Waseda University and memberships in research units at other institutions. Oka has received numerous awards, including multiple Emerging Investigator recognitions from Royal Society of Chemistry journals in 2026, the Research Encouragement Award from the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan in 2026, the Core Research Cluster for Materials Science Award from Tohoku University in 2025, and earlier honors such as the Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists in 2022 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Ikushi Prize in 2021. His key publications include papers on water-resistant redox-active metal-organic frameworks in Nature Communications (2025), synthesis of high-purity porous organic polymers in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2026), and earlier works on organic π-conjugated polymers in Advanced Energy Materials (2021 and 2019). He serves on various committees, including program organization for the Chemical Society of Japan and roles in the Adhesion Society of Japan.