Events

October 21-24, 2007
Xiangshan Science Conference on Functional Supramolecular Systems: Self-assembly and Nanotechnology

August 27-29, 2007
12th IUPAC International Symposium on MacroMolecular Complexes　(MMC-12)

June 2, 2007
Asian Chemistry Network Workshop on Polymer & Fiber Sciences

July 29, 2005
Workshop on Organized Macromolecular Systems

Outline

Purpose

The purpose of organizing Asian Chemistry Network (ASIA-CHEM-NET: ACN) is to link chemistry groups in Asia, which are in the forefront of the world. It is a network which strengthens academic activities through promoting scientific collaborations.
It will lead to an international research hub that is on par with those of U.S.A. and Europe. Read further to learn more about ACN purpose and objectives.

What is ACN ?

ACN is an international forum for scientists and researchers in the fields of Chemistry.
The long-term effort is needed to build research partnerships between Japan and Asian Countries.
To develop such partnerships, it would be most effective first to build up networks between talented researchers of Asian Universities and members of the Kyushu University 21century COE project.
The activities under the link will start with setting up the ACN home page which links homepages of each chemistry groups, laboratories and departments.

The ACN home page will provide following information.

• Information of research activities of the members. From the ACN homepage, one can jump to the member's URL and it serve as a hub to link each groups' homepages.
• Research News: Introduction of Hot papers.
• Information on International symposia. One of the tasks of ACN homepage is to announce International meetings and provide links to the conference homepages.
• Organization of International symposia.
• Advertise for post docs-recruitment.
• Information on the exchange of graduate (and undergraduate) students.
  The exchange of post doctoral fellows and graduated students is probably one of the most efficient ways to promote international collaborations and to build international partnerships.
  In addition, the ACN network facilitates our application for grants such as JSPS programs for student exchanges and international meetings.

About the ACN promoting office.

The Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan is a core of the 21st Century COE program which are selected from all over Japanese universities selected by MEXT.
The leader of our COE project is Prof. Seiji Shinkai.
We have recently proposed an idea to promote cooperation among the COE groups in Japan and developed a chemistry network "CHEM-NET"(BINDEC).
It consists of 6 big COE groups (Hokkaido Univ, Tohoku Univ, Univ. Tokyo, Osaka Univ, Kyoto Univ and Kyushu Univ) in Japan. Now, we want to extend this domestic network to Asian countries.
The following Kyushu University professors are in charge of steering ACN programs:

Prof. Nobuo Kimizuka, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University.
Prof. Atsushi Takahara, Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Kyushu University

Links

Kyushu University

A3 Foresight Program

Members

ACN Core-member list

• Location
• Campus Map (Ito Campus)
• The New Ito Campus

• JSPS Global COE Program
• Kyushu University G-COE program "NOVEL CARBON RESOURCE SCIENCES―Coal-Based Eco-Innovations"
• Kyushu University G-COE program "Cell-fate Decision: Function and Dysfunction in Homeostasis"
• Kyushu University G-COE program "Math-for-industry"
• Kyushu Univ. Career Center for Women Researchers

California Nano-Systems Institute, UCLA (CNSI)

We made an agreement on research exchange between Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyushu University and CNSI (world leading expert in the field of nano-system and nano-chemistry) in 2007. We support international research activities of graduate students and assistant Professors who are dispatched to CNSI. Furthermore, we invite researchers from CNSI to provide lectures in "Science for Future Molecular Systems Course". In January, 2008, the 1st Joint Symposium between Kyushu University and CNSI will be held at UCLA campus.

Yonsei University (Brain Korea 21 program, Institute for NanoBio Molecular Assemblies) / Korea
Pohang Institute of Technology / Korea

We also support educational opportunities for graduate students and young researchers within Asia, and are planning to take place Asian international workshops and symposiums of graduate students. These activities give chances of improving their abilities, and cultivate their wishes and dreams of science.

University of Bordeaux / France
Max Planck Institute / Germany

We have already established collaborative schemes with them. In fact, several graduate students and young researchers have already been exchanged continuously for more than a decade. Networks on education and research in Europe will be strengthened further.

Kyushu University has already set up overseas offices in California, Seoul, and other locations, they are very active to promote, support, and provide information on collaborative researches internationally. Collaborative educational research activities and the network formation internationally will continuously be developed in cooperation with these overseas offices, proactively.

A new course will be set up to promote young researchers with global vision, recognized research skills, established creativity and peer-reviewed academic competence.

Special guidance system.

Excellent researchers from a number of different Faculties will be allocated to the program so as to maximize the educational and academic benefit for graduate students. This guidance system is expected to have a positive effect on various special curricula, including this proposed program, "Global Graduate Project" (Global-COE grant for graduate students, G-Graduate), as well as others. In the context of this system, graduate students will be trained to become researchers with global vision by well-established faculty from a range of different research fields. Graduate students are thus expected to learn the key concepts of thought and innovation from top researchers at laboratories. Furthermore, those students enrolled in the program will participate in graduate courses jointly with some of invited researchers from overseas. As a result, a top-flight graduate course will be established that exceeds the global standard for excellence by a considerable margin.

Academic activities and personal trainings.

Three research units will be organized by program representatives to ensure the effective advancement of the program. They are "Molecular System Creation Unit", "Material and Energy Conversion Unit" and "BioMolecular System Unit". In particular, boundaries between these units will carefully be filled and studied. The research expenses of graduate students will be supported by "G-Graduate", the total sum of which will be varied according to the content of their respective research plans.

Financial supports for Young researchers.

An internal grant-in-aid system, "Global-COE grant for young researchers (G-Young)", will be introduced to support the independent research activities of young researchers. This will be done through a competitive proposal system. Moreover, once selected, a young researcher will benefit from an ability to participate in research activities at participating universities and institutes overseas; they will also be permitted to attend international conferences.

Research Proposal Training

Students are required to make research proposals in a field that is different from their own research fields. The written proposal and the oral defense will be evaluated and supervised by the faculty members. Especially, supervisors responsible for completing each research proposal are selected from outside of the examinee's research groups. This complementary or team-teaching discipline gives ideal opportunities for students to enjoy global training.

Graduate Student's Project

Original research proposals are written by students, and the topics are supposed to differ from their own research fields. After oral examination, they are supervised by well-established faculty members who belong to the different departments. Graduate students complete the research proposals through lively discussions with these supervisors. Thus, students are team-taught and learn key concepts of thought and innovation from top researchers, learning the global vision of cutting edge science.

Invited Lectures by Distinguished Foreign Researchers

Invited lectures will be given by distinguished researchers from all over the world.

Graduate Student Seminars Co-organized with Foreign Institutes

International workshops and symposia will cooperatively be held by global research establishments.

Internship in Companies

Students will have opportunities to conduct research and to learn how to write journal papers and patents at some companies.

International Scientific English

The objective of this course is to foster young researchers who are equipped to truly express themselves on the global stage. Students will dramatically improve their communication skills, presentation skills, discussion skills and scientific writing ability. In addition to the regular lessons taught by foreign teachers, intensive seminars and lectures by distinguished researchers will be provided.

Lecture on Most-advanced Bioscience

To construct molecular systems, extraction of the fine molecular function in a living organism and its artificial mimetic is effective. Therefore, we invite specialists of advanced bioscience from home and abroad to deliver a series of intensive lectures on most-advanced bioscience.

Lecture and Practice by Using State-of-the-art Analytical Instruments

By hands-on training with world-class advanced analytical instruments, a series of lectures and practices of science for molecular systems will be delivered.

There has been no concerted effort to date to create such synergistic molecular networks and, in fact, there is no means to create them at present from individual functional molecules. On the other hand, if such putative molecular networks, consisting of individual superbly functioning molecules, can be made either through static or dynamic self-assembly, it would open up new vistas for inter alia energy conversion or information processing or the like.

The novel systems include: nanomaterials that will be capable of optimizing their own structures by responding to information feedback from their surroundings; artificial intelligence units that vary their output depending on the input; drug delivery systems, which modulate their effect by sensing the nearby biological environment.

The concrete targets, defined as achievements in research, will involve the "creation of molecular systems with cooperative functions" and are specifically as follows:

• Creation of artificial molecular units with environmental response capability and self organization characteristics.
• Development of environmental friendly supramolecular catalysts with molecular recognition functionality, as well as the formation of molecular systems based on these proposed catalysts.
• Design and creation of energy conversion devices that display high efficiency.
• Design and creation of optical information processing and photonic devices via molecular organization
• Creation of highly ionized conducting compounds established through the molecular "self-organization" of constituent inorganic and organic components.
• Creation of highly sensitive nano devices applicable to the area of medical diagnosis
• Creation of medicating molecular systems that respond to the molecular information within the cell
• Control of cell function through designed molecular evolution methods

Nobuo KIMIZUKA, Professor (Program Leader)

Hiroyuki FURUTA, Professor (Program Vice-leader)

Masahiro GOTO, Professor

Yoshio HISAEDA, Professor

Junichi HOJO, Professor

Toshihiko IMATO, Professor

Totaro IMASAKA, Professor

Tatsumi ISHIHARA, Professor

Yoshiki KATAYAMA, Professor

Kenji MATSUDA, Visiting Professor

Toshihiko NAGAMURA, Professor

Naotoshi NAKASHIMA, Professor

Seiji SHINKAI, Professor

Sunao YAMADA, Professor

Keiji TANAKA, Professor

Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Chemical Engineering

Koei KAWAKAMI, Professor

Masahiro KISHIDA, Professor

Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Kenji KANEKO, Associate Professor

Teruaki MOTOOKA, Professor

Faculty of Science, Dept. of Chemistry

Masahiko ANNAKA, Professor

Tsutomu KATSUKI, Professor

Hiroshi KITAGAWA, Invited Professor

Osamu KUGE, Professor

Haruyuki NAKANO, Professor

Ken SAKAI, Professor (Program Vice-leader)

Makoto TOKUNAGA, Professor

Ryoichi KUWANO, Professor

Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering

Satoru KIDOAKI, Professor

Yoshinori NARUTA, Professor

Atsushi MARUYAMA, Professor

Atsushi TAKAHARA, Professor (Program Vice-leader)

Kazunari YOSHIZAWA, Professor

Center for Future Chemistry

Chihaya ADACHI, Professor

Masashi OGAWA, Professor

Seiji OGO, Professor

There has been rapid progress in the field of "molecular assembly systems" and "supramolecular chemistry", which has led us to design and synthesize special "molecular assemblies" with ordered structures and functions. These molecular assemblies have occasionally shown higher performance characteristics than biomolecules formed by static and dynamic molecular networks, including such canonical entities as cells and neurons that can, of course, transfer molecular information and energy very efficiently. Since these cell systems play significant roles in defining the intelligent activities of life, research into molecular network systems and the development of highly functional materials in terms of "chemistry" are defined as key goals in science. Unfortunately, in spite of occasional successes, our ability to design such functional systems is still far from perfect. During this project, new molecular materials and systems will be developed. This will be done over a variety of length scales, including the nano, micro, and macro levels, an approach that will allow the transfer and conversion of molecular information and energy to be carried out synergistically and effectively. Furthermore, new methodologies will be developed to deal with these materials and systems to obtain intelligent and cooperative functional systems through an iterative or feedback-based approach. These accomplishments will set the stage for the development of future innovative technologies, such as molecular electronic materials, ion-electron conduction systems, and drug delivery systems, to name a few. All will necessarily improve the quality of human life.

In addition to the specific research objectives, a special graduate school course "Science for Future Molecular Systems" will be introduced with graduate students being taught directly by the various researchers from multiple Faculties involved with the project. The involvement of these researchers, drawn from the Faculty of Engineering, Institute of Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Center for Future Chemistry, and Faculty of Science, will permit the instigation of a "special guidance system" that will lead to students capable of contributing to the long-term project goals. During the academic term, there will be invited lectures and special symposia given by renowned researchers from all over the world. The students will thus have a chance to learn from the best, as it were. They will also receive instruction that will augment their ability to give presentations, enter into cogent scientific debates and discussions, and improve their writing skills. We will have an exchange program for graduate students and young researchers (assistant professors) with a number of well-known overseas universities and institutes, including Yonsei University (Korea, one of the leading centers of Chemistry involved in the Brain Korea 21 program) and the California Nanosystems Institute (UCLA and UCSB, USA; known for its world-class experts in nano-systems).

This Global COE Program, "Science for Future Molecular Systems" aims to explore a new interdisciplinary area of chemistry, through the fusion of "Molecular Assembly Chemistry" and "Molecular Information Science", in which chemistry groups of Kyushu University has attained excellent achievements. This would be achievable by integration of our self-organization chemistry and functional manifestation of the molecular systems of life. The program intends to create an internationally distinguished Center of Excellence for "Science of Molecular Systems", which will engage in cutting-edge education and research related to the design and development of new functional molecular systems.

One of the salient features of Global COE education program involves the foundation of a new doctoral education course, "Science for Future Molecular Systems". The frontline researchers from the School of Engineering, School of Sciences, Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, and the Center for Future Chemistry will collaborate with researchers from overseas institutions to promote, from an international perspective, education and research in the "Science for Future Molecular Systems" course. This global education program will nurture young researchers and engineers who will play active parts on the international scene.

We sincerely hope that graduate students, doctoral fellows, and young faculty members will enjoy this new outstanding education and research environment. We would also like you to share the "dream" and "aspiration" of creating science for future molecular systems with us. Wishing that young researchers of our Global COE program would play active parts on the global scientific scene!

Nobuo Kimizuka
Program Leader, Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University