[No. 91] Yoshitaka Tanimura

My decision to pursue the sciences was influenced by my father and older brother, who were both in scientific fields, and the fact that our home was filled with things like illustrated encyclopedias, popular science books, a microscope, and a personal computer. Perhaps because I grew up in an area with many open fields, I was also interested in nature. I started mountain climbing in junior high, and by high school, this escalated to rock climbing on mountains like Mount Tsurugi and Mount Tanigawa and winter mountaineering. I was always climbing mountains. I studied a fair amount on weekdays, but my grades, with the exception of physics and Japanese, were disastrous. It was the Faculty of Engineering at Keio University that took a chance on someone like me.

After entering university, I joined the mountaineering club and also went on trips with a working adults' mountaineering club, spending over 200 days a year climbing. I thought I was studying a decent amount, but my grades were terrible. In the spring of my second year, I skipped school to go to the Himalayas and successfully summited a previously unclimbed peak. At the time, I considered becoming a professional mountaineer, but that autumn, a friend died in an accident on Mount Tanigawa, which prompted me to reflect on my life. After much thought, I decided to pursue theoretical physics, wanting to explore more fundamental questions. However, as a student with poor grades, I failed most of my language courses and ended up having to repeat the year.

I dedicated myself to my studies during the year I repeated, and my report card became filled with A's. At that time, Keio didn't have a Department of Physics, so I entered the Department of Instrumentation Engineering, which was close to applied physics. I studied quantum mechanics and relativity on my own, and while I was contemplating how to delve deeper, new departments of physics and chemistry were established, and the Faculty of Engineering became the Faculty of Science and Technology. I went to the theoretical research laboratory, which was composed of theoretical physics faculty, and asked them to accept me, and they agreed to take me in from my fourth year. There were no senior students there, and the faculty members had just been appointed and were very enthusiastic, so I received a very intensive education. For my graduation research, I came under the guidance of Professor Ryogo Kubo, who was renowned for his work in statistical mechanics. I was exposed to the depth of his insight and had many eye-opening experiences. In graduate school, I had a fulfilling life with seminars starting at midnight with junior students and assistants (which we called the "Cinderella Seminar") and various events on the other side of the Hiyoshi campus. By the time I advanced to the doctoral course, Professor Kubo was no longer accepting new students, so our discussions were held among the three of us: the professor, his assistant, and myself. In that environment, I conducted research to derive and generalize Professor Kubo's stochastic process theory from a dynamical model. I faced quite harsh criticism from Professor Kubo during the derivation process, but this led to a highly refined theory that became my doctoral dissertation. In 1989, I completed the Doctoral Programs as the first graduate of the Department of Physics at Keio University and the last student of the Kubo laboratory.

Believing that I couldn't pursue the research I aimed for unless I could survive abroad, I became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign immediately after obtaining my PhD. I was amazed by the high level and depth of the staff at the University of Illinois, but at the same time, I realized that the education I had received at Keio was of the highest caliber by international standards. I struggled with my poor English, but I pushed forward with my research in an ideal environment. However, I didn't just do research; I also traveled with the goal of reaching the highest point in all 50 US states and drove through vast landscapes like Arizona, Yosemite, and Yellowstone.

Around that time, I received an offer to return to Japan as a research assistant, but I declined, deciding to make my way in the United States. However, the US was in a recession at the time, and the job market was tough, partly because many renowned scientists had arrived following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since staying in one place as a postdoc is not good for one's career, I decided to move to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester in New York. Rochester was a cold place, but I conducted several studies applying statistical mechanics methods for dissipative systems to laser spectroscopy theory. The theory of multidimensional spectroscopy that I proposed at that time remains the core of my research today.

About four years after moving to the US, I was invited to apply for an open associate professor position at the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture. Thanks to my time in the US, I had come to realize that my research was actually more related to chemistry than physics, and I felt that this was the place I should be. The competition was fierce, but I successfully secured the position and returned to Japan in 1994. The Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) is a research institute under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). What made IMS attractive was its international character, which allowed me to advance my research without losing my connection to the global community, even while in Japan.

I was at IMS for about 10 years. I had no complaints about my research, but I believed that this position was meant for younger researchers and that it was my important duty as a researcher to educate the next generation of students, so I moved to the Major in Chemistry at the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University. The people and organization at Kyoto University's Faculty of Science are extremely unique, and for someone like me who received a rational education in a rational organization like Keio, it is a truly refreshing place. I myself have had a variety of experiences, both academically and personally, and I hope to be able to convey even a little of that to my students.

I am indebted to many people, starting with the professors at Keio who drilled the fundamentals of physics into me. I have simply lived my life doing what I wanted to do; while there may be things to apologize for, there is nothing I can boast about to others. However, I am satisfied with the fact that I faced the several turning points that came without a clear path forward, rather than running away from them.