The Institute for Planetary materials (IPM), Okayama University held a lunch meeting with President Nasu as one of the Misasa International Students Internship Program (MISIP) on August 4. There were 19 participants including 8 internship students and 11 graduate students from the IPM. Participants presented their research topics and talked about their experiences at IPM. President Nasu listened to each presentations and opinions and offered advice about the way of thinking that should be valued as researcher and his experiences during his time studying abroad. Participants occasionally smiled during the meeting. After the meeting, participants activity interacted with President Nasu and Executive Director for Planning and General Affairs Mimura, so the meeting was an active exchange of opinions. Participants gave enthusiastic comments for their further research as follows. “I recognized the advantage of having many researchers at IPM through this lunch meeting with President Nasu. I hope to get advice from many researchers and improve my research.” and “I will cherish the excellent experimental facilities at IPM and hope to succeed in the high-temperature and high-pressure experiment currently conducting .” The meeting was a great opportunity for participants to increase their motivation as researchers.
On August 7, IPM held a symposium, certificate ceremony and farewell party. During the symposium, students presented the achievements of their research projects conducted for 6 weeks supervised by their host faculty and research groups. At the certificate ceremony and farewell party, students received the certificates and memorial goods from Prof. Yoshino, Director of the IPM, and enjoyed the last interaction with supervisors and graduate students in a peaceful atmosphere. Ms.Veerle Donker (1st-year graduate student・Vrije University of Amsterdam) said “I would like to thank Okayama University and especially IPM, for this amazing opportunity. It was awesome to conduct research in such a prestigious institute with amazing researchers. I had the opportunity to experience not only research but also Japanese culture and nature. I was able to make lifelong friends from across the world.” We sent off the internship students who completed the entire program, with a hope that various experiences and learnings during their 6 weeks in Misasa will become their foundation and they will lead the field of planetary science in the world.

We will also conduct MISIP as a program of connection with Okayama University and world next year.


[Contact information]
Institute for Planetary Materials, Okayama University
Misasa International Student Internship Program Committee Chairperson
Assoc. Prof. Takuya Kunihiro
Misasa, Tottori 682-0193, Japan
misip◎adm.okayama-u.ac.jp
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