Zen Maeno received his B.Sc. (March, 2009), M.Sc. (March, 2011) and Ph.D. (June, 2013) from Osaka University under the supervision of Prof. Koichiro Jitsukawa. After that, he started his career in Prof. Jitsukawa's group as an assistant professor, where his research has focused on design of heterogeneous metal nanoparticle/cluster catalysts for liquid-phase organic synthesis reactions. In April, 2018, he joined the group of Prof. Kenichi Shimizu in Hokkaido University as a specially appointed lecturer. His research topic shifted toward heterogenous catalysts for gas-phase reactions and elucidation of structure-catalytic function relationship. Especially, he successfully revealed the formation of typical metal-hydrides and -oxo clusters for small alkane transformation. In April, 2022, he became the associated professor in Kogakuin University to start up a new research laboratory as a principal investigator. The new research topic is design of new catalytic processes for valorization of CO2 and light alkanes. He received several awards, including Excellent Poster Award of TOCAT7 (2013, Catalysis Society of Japan), Young Lectureship Award (2022, The Chemical Society of Japan), Catalysis Society of Japan Award for Young Researchers (2022, Catalysis Society of Japan), Research Award for Young Researchers (2022, Japan Association for Chemical Innovation), and Award for Young Researchers (2024, The Japan Petroleum Institute).