Meet the Team: Mitsuhiro Murayama

The National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth) continues the Meet the Team Series with NanoEarth Site Director, Mitsu Murayama, Ph.D. 

Murayama began his academic journey at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. He obtained his Bachelor of Material Science and Engineering and then both his Master’s and Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering. As part of a historical materials physics research lab group that lasted over 50 years, he gained valuable hands-on experience and critical thinking skills from his advisors. These experiences led him to a Staff Scientist position at a National Laboratory in Japan. 

As Murayama grew up in the heart of downtown Tokyo, Japan, he searched for positions in a more rural area. With many options such as France and Holland, he decided to relocate to Charlottesville, Virginia. He spent four years as a Senior Researcher of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA), until his friends, one being NanoEarth founder Mike Hochella, Ph.D., encouraged him to move to Virginia Tech (VT) in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Murayama spent three years as a Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) and then 13 years as a Full Professor of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Virginia Tech. He holds an advisor position for the Materials Science and Engineering student organization. In addition to his VT roles, he is a jointly appointed Chief Scientist in the Energy and Environment Directorate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington and a full professor for the Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. 

Along with his teaching and research duties, Murayama is currently serving as the NanoEarth Site Director. He enjoys his time at NanoEarth communicating with the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the other site directors. He also enjoys his time working with NanoEarth staff, transmission electron microscope (TEM) research, and cleaning and organizing TEM and sample preparation labs.

Within the NNCI, Murayama is a member of a few sub-committees and co-lead of the Nano Earth Science Research Community with Trevor Thornton, Ph.D. at Arizona State University (ASU) and David Dickensheets, Ph.D. at Montana State University (MSU). He is part of the Japanese Microscopy Society (JSM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Murayama’s extensive research has led to several groundbreaking discoveries. He studies the relationship between microstructure and various physical, chemical, and mechanical behavior of materials. He made the world’s first observation of the atomic structure of a disclination defect in crystals, published in Science. He has been actively conducting technical developments on both hardware and software for in situ and three-dimensional transmission electron microscopy. This led him to become a co-inventor of the in-situ deformation holder system. This has data acquisition and analysis software including a compressive sensing inspired three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm, and machine-learning assisted frameworks for in situ and three-dimensional data processing and analysis. 

To date, these outcomes are used to investigate the internal behavior of structural metallic materials, nanoporous metals, and solder material subjected to external stresses - applications, as well as the evolution and transformation of nanominerals and mineral nanoparticles particularly in aqueous environments. As of June 2025, Murayama has authored or co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles, with more than 10,000 citations and an h-index of 44.

Murayama enjoys riding bicycles and motorcycles, playing with his cat, and completing house maintenance in his free time. He has a personal goal to take a motorcycle road trip in the United States and Japan. His advice for young researchers and scientists is to allocate ample time for self-driven, fact-based verification and evaluation, helping them manage peer pressure, and avoid getting swept up in the currents of social media.