[No. 222] Kazuhisa Isegawa

A photo taken through trial and error with a junior colleague for my assistant professor self-introduction (incidentally, I have never used the equipment in the background).

It is a great honor to have this opportunity to contribute to the Jukuin Raiou (Keio University alumni column). My name is Kazuhisa Isegawa, and I am a graduate of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology. I obtained my PhD from Keio University, and during my student years, I conducted evaluation research on operating organic synthesis catalysts and fuel cells using synchrotron radiation X-rays. Currently, I am engaged in imaging research at Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. Now, reading the columns of other contributors, I see they are full of diversity, with some having brilliant careers and others being recent graduates. Therefore, I have taken up my pen (or keyboard?) to write from the perspective of "Let's all feel free to pursue Doctoral Programs." I hope this will be a helpful read for those for whom Keio University is their first choice, those for whom it is not, and even for undergraduate students. Incidentally, my research methods are similar to those of Professor Takayama in issue No. 211, so please be sure to read that as well.

I'll start with something that may not be very helpful, but I have never had any doubts about whether to get a PhD. Like many children, I was looking at picture books of dinosaurs, insects, fish, and space before I can remember, but in my case, I had already decided to become a doctor (PhD) and wanted to be a paleontologist or archaeologist at the time. Besides reading picture books, I enjoyed crafting and spreading Plarail trains all over the house, placing my younger brothers at stations to operate the trains.

Even in elementary school, I only read books about excavating dinosaurs and ruins. However, and this is a prejudice, as I read more, I gradually became less comfortable with the idea of aiming for a profession like a paleontologist or archaeologist, which seemed to depend on whether or not one could excavate something interesting. At school, I liked being the leader of small groups, serving as a club captain, and even creating a secret society to occupy the mountain behind the school.

However, this is where I hit a wall. I couldn't come up with any interesting themes for my independent research projects. From elementary school to high school, I failed to devise any decent research projects year after year. Thinking back, highly-rated independent research projects were essentially just experiments covering topics from higher-level education. In my hobbies, I had developed a method for folding a crane with 41 necks from a 15 cm piece of origami paper and built a vending machine out of Lego blocks that only recognized coins. So, I think it was a matter of my interest and my criteria for what constitutes research. But I'm still not good at planning research themes. I completely lost my motivation for science, spent my time reading manga, and ended up as a ronin (a student studying for university entrance exams for another year).

Around this time, I decided to specialize in chemistry. I thought it suited my disposition because, compared to math and physics, its significance seemed easier to explain to laypeople, and unlike biology and medical sciences, it had fewer ethical issues, making experiments relatively carefree. To be honest, the biggest reason was that Mr. Kameda at Yoyogi Seminar was hilarious.

Rereading this, it doesn't sound much like "Interest in Science," but I hope I've conveyed the message that even someone like me, who has only ever won awards for drawing and calligraphy, is working as a researcher in a scientific field, so you should all feel free to pursue Doctoral Programs.

As is often the case, I actually failed to get into "T University" and enrolled at Keio. When it started to look like I wouldn't pass the T University exam, my grandfather (a T University graduate) began to reason with me, saying, "Keio has more company presidents," and my father (also a T University graduate) started saying things like, "I failed the Keio exam." It felt a bit condescending and annoyed me, but since I didn't have a strong desire to study under a specific professor, by the time I enrolled, I was amusing myself by searching for the description of Osamu Tezuka's great-grandfather in the copy of "Fuku-o Jijiden" (The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi) that had been sent to me. In reality, Keio University was an interesting university with people from various backgrounds.

As mentioned earlier, I got into manga, so I joined an otaku-related club. In the club, I served as the representative, organized the first alumni reunion in decades, and drew a 16-page weekly manuscript for the club magazine while writing lab reports. I gained a variety of experiences through running the club. I still read a lot of manga, but these days I read comics from all over the world, including comics and graphic novels (from the US), bande dessinée (from France and Belgium), and others from South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Israel. I think it's just that the works introduced in Japan are biased, but I have the impression that many famous manga from outside Japan, the US, and France are about "childhoods that were difficult but happy under the XX regime." Free creation truly requires a peaceful environment. It makes me feel that I must contribute, however modestly, to the development of humanity through my research.

I entered the Department of Chemistry from Gakumon 3 (a specific academic track) and was assigned to the Kondo Laboratory (Surface Chemistry Laboratory). The Faculty of Science and Technology has a Department of Applied Chemistry and a Department of Chemistry, and I chose the Department of Chemistry because it was smaller and focused on basic research. The reason I chose the Kondo Lab was that no one was there when I went for a lab tour. The Kondo Lab often goes to external facilities for experiments, so I thought it was "rock" that the lab was empty regardless of it being the lab tour period.

My undergraduate thesis theme was the elucidation of the organic synthesis reaction mechanism on a silver catalyst. The research itself did not go well, but I was able to acquire fundamental skills such as designing vacuum equipment and mastering surface analysis techniques.

From my master's degree onward, I added the theme of fuel cell degradation mechanisms and began conducting research at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba using analysis methods such as XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and XAFS (X-ray absorption fine structure) with synchrotron radiation X-rays. Synchrotron radiation X-rays have advantages such as high brightness, high directionality, polarization, and variable energy, and they offer various benefits like measuring minute quantities, observing changes over time, and observing the orientation of molecules adsorbed on catalyst surfaces, which cannot be done in the lab. At the synchrotron facility, we would set up our custom-made equipment with numerous vacuum pumps and measuring instruments on a large scale, and conduct experiments while stationing my peers and junior colleagues near the valves and vacuum gauges to ensure everything was operating safely. Looking at it this way, I realize I'm doing the same thing I did as a child when I laid out Plarail tracks all over the house. My father also, ever since catching a mole in elementary school, has spent his entire career until retirement taking care of experimental animals. It might sound cool to call this a consistent style, but I think it's just being one-dimensional. It's in my genes.

Now, even with a powerful weapon like synchrotron radiation, research did not proceed smoothly. In the silver catalyst research, I stumbled at the pre-reaction stage of forming an oxide on the silver surface. An oxide is a compound of oxygen and silver, but sulfur and chlorine kept bubbling up from within the silver, making it impossible to form the oxide. You have probably seen tarnished silverware. That is the work of sulfur and, in some cases, chlorine. These elements bond very easily with silver, and it took me two years to develop a method to remove them. By the time I was finally able to start working on the intended organic synthesis reaction on the silver catalyst, I had already enrolled in the Doctoral Programs.

The fuel cell research was not straightforward either. Since a fuel cell is a device that extracts electricity from the combustion of hydrogen, it was crucial to handle potentially explosive hydrogen safely with our custom-built measurement device. I developed a measurement device with guaranteed safety after being thoroughly scolded by the safety officer at KEK. Also, since fuel cells are a well-researched topic, I decided to give my research novelty by adopting an analysis method that had hardly ever been used for fuel cells before. This approach was a partial success; it was novel in that it showed what kind of information about fuel cells could be obtained with that method, but on the other hand, the information was somewhat weak in terms of its usefulness.

Through this research, I was able to acquire various skills and gain experience in areas such as surveying prior research, setting experimental conditions, and handling various applications and safety reviews for using external facilities.

Regarding the thesis writing required for my PhD, the paper on the fuel cell research, which I started later, was published before the one on the difficult silver research. The students in the Kondo Lab at the time, with the exception of my senior, Dr. Toyoshima (now an assistant professor in the Kondo Lab), were struggling with output, so I thought writing a paper would be a huge task, but it was surprisingly published smoothly. While it is important to aim for publishing a perfect and ultimate paper that proceeds according to plan and captivates everyone, I learned that the ability to formulate a story by working backward from the obtained results is more important.

In my third year of the doctoral program, with the departure of the previous assistant professor, Dr. Yoshida (now an associate professor at Yamaguchi University), I was hired as an Assistant Professor (fixed-term) and began to mentor not only the junior members of my lab but also a wider range of junior students in the Faculty of Science and Technology through student experiments. I had been thinking, "I don't want to work! Society is scary!" but before I knew it, I had become a working adult. However, I was not skilled enough to juggle my doctoral thesis, teaching, and job hunting, so I quickly gave up on job hunting and was fortunate to stay in the lab the following year as a Project Assistant Professor／Project Research Associate／Project Instructor. By the way, my grandfather used to say that being a ronin was a waste because it reduces your lifetime earnings, but since I effectively started working a year earlier, I've recently been thinking that I might have recovered that one ronin year.

Incidentally, I did not attend my PhD conferment ceremony because I had an experiment at the synchrotron facility. There was another PhD student in my lab from my year, but he also missed the ceremony because he was moving. The professor was very disappointed, but as I mentioned, I have always thought of it as a "rock" lab, so I am satisfied.

After obtaining my PhD, I continued my research as a Project Assistant Professor／Project Research Associate／Project Instructor in the university lab, but through an introduction from a junior colleague, I decided to change jobs and move to the J-PARC Center of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in Tokai Village. J-PARC is one of the world's highest-performance facilities for experiments using neutrons. At J-PARC, I worked as a postdoc on a joint research project with my current workplace, Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., to advance neutron imaging.

The X-rays I had used until then were blocked by air and water, which required me to create special "model" fuel cells for measurements or to moderate the reaction conditions. As a result, when submitting a paper, a reviewer pointed this out, and I was made to add the word "model," "model," "model," "model" before every instance of the term "fuel cell." However, neutrons can penetrate anything, even metal, so it is possible to measure practical fuel cells used in automobiles. In my university days, I conducted research observing changes in the electronic state of each element using X-rays, but at J-PARC, I conducted research on image processing for something like an X-ray photograph with a field of view of several tens of centimeters square. Through this difference in scale and by learning about the complementary properties of X-rays and neutrons, I was able to broaden my research perspective.

Later, thanks to the connection from our joint research, I changed jobs to Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. I have returned from neutrons to research using synchrotron radiation X-rays and am now working on advancing imaging using AI at the Toyota Beamline at the large synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8. Here too, by acquiring the new method of AI, I am generating new ideas.

It is generally said that one should leave university after a master's degree to get a job in a company, and that those who want to remain in academia should pursue a PhD. However, I had consistently said that I would get a job in a company after getting my PhD, so I believe this path opened up for me even though it was a detour. Keio University values human connections, and since a PhD involves an apprenticeship system, you feel those connections even more strongly. It is said that there are no jobs if you go on to Doctoral Programs, but I believe it is a wonderful option that allows you to roll yourself in unexpected directions through the broad connections made during university life and research, and to use the logical thinking and problem-solving skills you have acquired to contribute to society. I would like to conclude this column with the words: "A research career can make a lot of people smile, you know? There's no profession more wonderful than this!"