2nd URA International Research Seminar

Okayama University’s Research Administrator (URA) office hosted its 2nd International Research Seminar on November 12th 2014 at the 50th Anniversary Hall. The objective of the seminar was to promote the globalization of Okayama University’s research capability.

Michel Pons, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and director of the laboratory “Le Laboratoire de Science et Ingénierie des Matériaux et Procédés (SIMaP)”, lectured on material science research, and the development of multifunctional materials carried out at his laboratory. In his talk, he emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary research, stating that: “In our laboratory, all physicists, material and fluid mechanics specialists and chemists study the preparation, forming, and assembly of materials, as well as their properties for structural and functional applications to energy, microelectronics, and metallurgy, to name but a few. They combine experimentation and modeling from the atomic level to full process scale on the basis of experimental preparation and characterization facilities.” He also provided some examples of their cutting-edge, world-leading research such as silicon purification using thermal plasma.

The seminar was followed by presentations by three young researchers from Okayama University, Hideki Hashimoto and Takashi Teranishi from the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, and Yuta Nishina from the Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences.

The seminar provided all the participants an opportunity to share their knowledge and ideas, and also to discuss the possibility of collaborative research and cooperation in the fields of material science and related areas.

Okayama University was one of the top 19 research universities in Japan selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to receive support for the implementation of its Research Enhancement Project, which was launched in 2013. This seminar was organized as part of this project.

The official name of this project is the "Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities".