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21st Century COE program ‘Promotion of creative interdisciplinary materials science for novel functions’
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 6 (2005) 549–550 www.elsevier.com/locate/stam
Editorial
21st Century COE program ‘Promotion of creative interdisciplinary materials science for novel functions’ The 21st Century COE Program has been launched and initiated in 2002 in order to boost-up research activities as efficient as possible and to raise educational levels as high as possible in Japanese Universities under the auspice of the ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology (MEXT). Our program is selected as one of 21 programs in the field of Chemistry and Materials Science competitively among a large number of applications in Japan. This 21st Century program consists of three research divisions including six research cores to promote new research and development by close collaborations working in science and technology fields in different departments in our university: the materials synthesis division (MSD) (consisting of functional polymer core and material conversion core), the interdisciplinary solid state physics division (ISSPD) (consisting of interdisciplinary electronic solid state physics core and hybrid function core), the nanocontrol division (NCD) (consisting of nano-functional structure core and quantum control and measurement core) (see Fig. 1). The 28 researchers are selected according to the evaluation criteria among others from four major doctoral programs in the graduate school of pure and applied sciences: the doctoral program in materials science (principal course), the doctoral program in chemistry, the doctoral program in applied physics and the doctoral program in frontier science. These research cores and divisions are organized to eliminate barriers as well as boundaries existing in-between science and technology, and truly to carry out fused researches on various different fields based on materials and their functions. As you will find below these selected people are all top-ranking researchers in the field so that it is expected to be much more effective and creative in closer collaborations between different fields by breaking through a traditional concept of well-separated independent laboratories like silos in a firm. It is of our final
1468-6996/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.stam.2005.08.002
goal that is to be the Centre Of Excellence centralized at the University of Tsukuba in the field of materials science. In this COE program we introduced a new management structure, which is called ‘the research strategy office’. It plays an important role to take initiatives and to lead not only the scientific program but also all kind of necessary administrative affairs. New tactics are devised which promotes creativity and novel ideas. Introduction of a new style of grant-in-aid for graduate students and younger researchers supporting their research and educational activities, creation of new post doctoral fellowship positions, establishment of a new unified research and educational alliance system between near-by the research institutions located in the Tsukuba science city, and so on, are under way among others. Making our best efforts that will bring efficient research and education, and promote development and exploration of new research area, especially for young scientists, it is hoped, succeeding professor emeritus Hideki Shirakawa, a Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry in October 2000, that another Nobel Prize winners will follow him among people who are participating in this 21st Century COE Program.
21st Century program Leader K. Kadowaki* Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Ten-nodai, Tsukuba, 305-8573 Ibaraki, Japan E-mail address: [email protected] URLs: http://www.pas.tsukuba.ac.jp, http: //www.coe.pas.tsukuba.ac.jp Received 27 June 2005 Available online 23 September 2005
* Tel.: C81 298 53 5291; fax: C81 298 55 7440.
550
Editorial / Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 6 (2005) 549–550
Concept of Organization Material Synthesis Div.
Creative Materials Science Search for new functional material
Functional polymer core Material conversion core
Physical property measurement
Interdisciplinary Solid State Physics Div.
Head Quarter
Extension of new properties to applications
Development of high performance materials
Nano-Control Div.
Materials Science stemmed from nano-technology
Exploring new functions in materials science Interdisciplinary electronic solid state physics core Hybrid function core
Extended research on new material
High-speeding of materials function
Nano-functional structure core Quantum control and measurement core
Fig. 1. Concept of the 21st century COE program led by the Head Quarter (The Research Strategy Office).
Editorial
21st Century COE program ‘Promotion of creative interdisciplinary materials science for novel functions’ The 21st Century COE Program has been launched and initiated in 2002 in order to boost-up research activities as efficient as possible and to raise educational levels as high as possible in Japanese Universities under the auspice of the ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology (MEXT). Our program is selected as one of 21 programs in the field of Chemistry and Materials Science competitively among a large number of applications in Japan. This 21st Century program consists of three research divisions including six research cores to promote new research and development by close collaborations working in science and technology fields in different departments in our university: the materials synthesis division (MSD) (consisting of functional polymer core and material conversion core), the interdisciplinary solid state physics division (ISSPD) (consisting of interdisciplinary electronic solid state physics core and hybrid function core), the nanocontrol division (NCD) (consisting of nano-functional structure core and quantum control and measurement core) (see Fig. 1). The 28 researchers are selected according to the evaluation criteria among others from four major doctoral programs in the graduate school of pure and applied sciences: the doctoral program in materials science (principal course), the doctoral program in chemistry, the doctoral program in applied physics and the doctoral program in frontier science. These research cores and divisions are organized to eliminate barriers as well as boundaries existing in-between science and technology, and truly to carry out fused researches on various different fields based on materials and their functions. As you will find below these selected people are all top-ranking researchers in the field so that it is expected to be much more effective and creative in closer collaborations between different fields by breaking through a traditional concept of well-separated independent laboratories like silos in a firm. It is of our final
1468-6996/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.stam.2005.08.002
goal that is to be the Centre Of Excellence centralized at the University of Tsukuba in the field of materials science. In this COE program we introduced a new management structure, which is called ‘the research strategy office’. It plays an important role to take initiatives and to lead not only the scientific program but also all kind of necessary administrative affairs. New tactics are devised which promotes creativity and novel ideas. Introduction of a new style of grant-in-aid for graduate students and younger researchers supporting their research and educational activities, creation of new post doctoral fellowship positions, establishment of a new unified research and educational alliance system between near-by the research institutions located in the Tsukuba science city, and so on, are under way among others. Making our best efforts that will bring efficient research and education, and promote development and exploration of new research area, especially for young scientists, it is hoped, succeeding professor emeritus Hideki Shirakawa, a Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry in October 2000, that another Nobel Prize winners will follow him among people who are participating in this 21st Century COE Program.
21st Century program Leader K. Kadowaki* Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Ten-nodai, Tsukuba, 305-8573 Ibaraki, Japan E-mail address: [email protected] URLs: http://www.pas.tsukuba.ac.jp, http: //www.coe.pas.tsukuba.ac.jp Received 27 June 2005 Available online 23 September 2005
* Tel.: C81 298 53 5291; fax: C81 298 55 7440.
550
Editorial / Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 6 (2005) 549–550
Concept of Organization Material Synthesis Div.
Creative Materials Science Search for new functional material
Functional polymer core Material conversion core
Physical property measurement
Interdisciplinary Solid State Physics Div.
Head Quarter
Extension of new properties to applications
Development of high performance materials
Nano-Control Div.
Materials Science stemmed from nano-technology
Exploring new functions in materials science Interdisciplinary electronic solid state physics core Hybrid function core
Extended research on new material
High-speeding of materials function
Nano-functional structure core Quantum control and measurement core
Fig. 1. Concept of the 21st century COE program led by the Head Quarter (The Research Strategy Office).