Toyoki kunitake biography template

My point is, public expectations of research change as social circumstances change. When there is some leeway to be had in their collective mind, their expectations of basic research tend to rise, but they want a greater emphasis on applied research toyoki kunitake biography template they run out of leeway. I think this frames the problem incorrectly.

It seems to me that the public seeks answers from one or the other, but in reality, basic and applied research are equally important. If I were to use the analogy of a human body, basic research is the trunk of the body, and applied research is the limbs. When you play baseball, you have to have a robust trunk, or you cannot move your arms and legs as you want to.

Or if you train your arms and legs but have a feeble trunk, the overall balance is lost. The same holds true for research. Only when there is a solid foundation of basic research does applied research become useful in addressing specific social issues and economic challenges. Just as you cannot think of a human body as independently separate parts, basic research and applied research are two sides of the same coin.

I think this is also true for society and science. Just as we perceive basic research and applied research as one, can we not perceive academic disciplines of humanities and natural science as one? Otherwise, you end up having a narrow view. Every person has differing degrees of aptitudes that are distinct from others, and so it makes sense to place weight on areas of strength.

Yet, I think the government should balance between the two. What they have learned will be of help later and help to expand their world. If you teach both in a good balance, at least in their formative years, it is sure to be of use in some way later in life. You started your career as a researcher more than fifty years ago, but do you think the world of education or research has narrowed in that time?

Only the highly-competent part tends to receive lofty praise. For example, I have had the pleasure of getting to know European researchers, and they have a very broad range of interests. I know several university researchers play musical instruments well. I guess it is because something was different at the start of their education. In Japan, it often happens that, outside of their field of specialty, there is a complete lack of knowledge, even in fields that would be considered adjacent.

Here, I see the same problem in the case of breadth of knowledge and basic knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the broader your view of the world gets, and the lower the hurdle becomes to access different fields. After all, the world is so broad. I think teaching the expanse of the world or providing students with opportunities to have an experience themselves is necessary.

What prospects do you think your research achievements have shown to researchers of future generations? Within toyoki kunitake biography template organisms are macro functional units, which contain layers of structured smaller molecules, such as proteins and lipids, and on each layer, a new function is generated. It is very difficult for humans to reproduce this process.

Let me give you an example that indicates the paramount importance of this structurization stage. Graphene is perhaps the most obvious example. Now, a graphene sheet is a one-atom-thick sheet material, with carbon atoms and their bonds being arranged in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice that looks like a honeycomb. If you extend this carbon-carbon binding three-dimensionally, you finally get graphite, or diamond.

Over the past twenty years, nanotechnology has drawn much attention, as it presents the potential of reproducing different levels of biological structures on the nano level by using synthetic materials and the like. I believe we still have vast untapped potential lying there. Before the Industrial Revolution, the atmospheric CO 2 was 0.

So, an increase of a mere 0. Gas separation membrane technology is not new, but the sheer amount of energy required to separate gases made it challenging to reduce the large volume of CO 2. It has become known, however, that huge nanomembranes can provide good gas separating performance when atmospheric CO 2 mixed with nitrogen permeates through them.

Normally, the thinner the membranes are, the lower the resistance gets, with the result that the separation capacity for collecting selected gas molecules only lowers. Huge nanomembranes solve this bottleneck and are capable of collecting CO 2which accounts for only 0. Also, there have been discussions as to what determines the ease of permeation of gas molecules.

There are two camps of thought about this: one claims that it is the boundary between the membrane surface and the atmosphere, and the other maintains that some molecules pass through the inside of membrane more easily than others. Our experiment data has shown that the critical point is almost always on the membrane surface. So, if we attach a membrane that separates and collects CO 2 to my air conditioner, we can collect the atmospheric CO 2 as we control the room temperature, right?

The indoor CO 2 concentration is about 2. Theoretically speaking, the more persons there are in the room, the more CO 2 you collect. When you search for a research topic that offers continuous potential, what points do you focus on? Speaking of research topics, I make it a rule to pursue topics with a common denominator. Both synthetic bilayer membranes and huge nanomembranes have one thing in common: an interface.

Toyoki kunitake biography template

Of course, every living organism, too, has an interface between a biological membrane and water solution. It is conceivable that we will find new facts about what is happening near the surface of the biological cell membrane that differs from our current understanding. I imagine, though, that there were periods that you had to endure in which nothing came of your efforts, maybe even for years at a time.

How did you get over such difficult times? It was when I was an associate professor, and I was going through a very tough time. Because I was simultaneously working on a bit more orthodox research on polymers, however, I guess I was able to release my stress to some extent. I think you should always have an escape available. Because I find my work interesting, whatever I am doing—taking a bath or in bed—I find myself thinking about it spontaneously.

So, I end up thinking about my research all the time. On the other hand, as the scope of your interest widens, it becomes harder to maintain a keen interest in individual things. In retrospect, do you think having such a broad range of interests had a favorable impact on your research work? His research made it possible, for the first time, to gain a molecular design-based understanding of how molecular organizational structures and physical properties, which are created in a hierarchical manner through self-assembly, correlate with the molecular structures of components.

While extending the formation of molecular self-assembly from aqueous to organic solvents, he generalized the conventional image of hydrophilic and hydrophobic portions of amphiphilic molecules, so we can now think in terms of the larger categories of molecular parts that are solvophilic and solvophobic. Kunitake also showed that specific interactions among functional groups derived from advanced ordered structures appears in bilayer membranes, thereby establishing a fundamental concept of chemistry based on self-assembly: that such interactions on the molecular level as well as their collective functions may be controlled according to molecular toyoki kunitake biography template and distribution.

Furthermore, he went on to lead innovations in materials science founded on this basic research. Bilayer membranes immobilized in this way are used to produce super-laminated solid molecular-oriented film electrodes in fully automated electrolyte analyzers for medical use and in-vitro diagnostic testing. These characteristics had long been sought in the functional membrane field and, at present, there are high expectations for their wide-ranging application, including improvements in fuel cells and solutions to environmental problems.

Through these achievements, Dr. Kunitake has expanded the concept of molecular self-assembly-based chemistry which is widely recognized as one of the most useful concepts in advanced materials design and opened a new frontier in the field of materials science using self-assembly techniques. At the same time, he has trained a number of highly accomplished researchers in these academic fields while making significant contributions to international academic exchange.

Toyoki Kunitake. This workshop was offered by Dr. This video clip is available only in Japanese. I understand. Biography Born in Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan.