Ryo grew up in Tokyo, Japan. He received his Bachelor's degrees from Waseda University in 2012 and stayed there for his PhD. He received his PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Professor Hiroyuki Nishide and was appointed as an assistant professor to the Department of Applied Chemistry. He moved to the University of Chicago and joined Professor Rowan’s group as a postdoc in 2018. His research interests are synthesis and application of functional polymers (especially redox polymers), stimuli-responsive materials, nanocomposites, and energy storage devices.
Ryo's current research is focused on the application of stimuli-responsive polymers and functionalized cellulose nanocrystals to energy harvesting and storage devices.
Kato, R., Lettow, J. H., Patel, S. N. & Rowan, S. J. Ion-Conducting Thermoresponsive Films Based on Polymer-Grafted Cellulose Nanocrystals. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, (2020)
Ryo Kato, James H Lettow, Shrayesh N Patel, Stuart J Rowan. Ion-Conducting Thermoresponsive Films Based on Polymer-Grafted Cellulose Nanocrystals. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2020, 12, 48, 54083–54093
Calvino, C., Macke, N., Kato, R. & Rowan, S. J. Development, processing and applications of bio-sourced cellulose nanocrystal composites. Progress in Polymer Science (2020). doi:10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2020.101221
Han Yang, Yefei Zhang, Ryo Kato, and Stuart J. Rowan. Preparation of cellulose nanofibers from Miscanthus x. Giganteus by ammonium persulfate oxidation. Carbohydrate Polymers. 2019. Vol. 212, Pg. 30-39.
