[No. 162] Hiroki Tanimoto

I am currently a faculty member at a place with a very, very long name: the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (which I will refer to as NAIST). Since I began to see Keio University from the outside, I have come to feel its presence more and more. On this 20th anniversary of my university entrance, I would like to thank all the professors involved for giving me this opportunity to reflect on myself in this alumni column. I hope this will be of some help to future Keio students who are considering the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Having said that, I apologize that this may not be helpful for those preparing for entrance exams, as I entered the university through internal advancement from Keio Senior High School (next to the university's Hiyoshi Campus). To be honest, it just felt like moving to the adjacent lot, and I didn't really feel like I was starting my university life. Initially, I was considering fields in Categories 4 and 5, such as the Department of System Design Engineering. However, I found the shaping of nanoscale molecules I learned about in high school chemistry, as well as the design and synthesis of molecules for drug discovery and polymer materials, to be fascinating (+ I realized that physics was probably not for me). So, I decided to go with chemistry and advanced to Category 3. Thinking back, I feel that my high school chemistry teacher, who was also a graduate of the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology, may have influenced me. I now realize that even though it was an internal advancement, my connection to Keio's Faculty of Science and Technology has brought me this far. I ultimately decided on the Department of Applied Chemistry, which covered a very broad range of fields.

Many students in the Faculty of Science and Technology go on to graduate school, but there are also many opportunities to visit companies during the undergraduate years. At the time, the Department of Applied Chemistry organized a three-day, two-night trip during the spring break between my second and third years to visit the research departments of chemical companies in the Kansai region. I feel that participating in this event was when I started to become conscious of research.

When choosing a laboratory in my third year, I planned to pursue organic chemistry. After much deliberation and many lab visits, I chose the laboratory of Professor Noritaka Chida, which focused on the synthesis of natural products—a field that could be called the epitome of organic synthetic chemistry. The deciding factors were that he was promoted to full professor in the year I joined, and I felt his extraordinary passion, and I was also attracted to the lab's research strategy, which was based on its own unique synthesis methods. My research life, aimed at the chemical synthesis of biologically active natural products found in fungi and plants, was quite demanding. However, the many experiments that required the full use of not only my hands but also my mind, the journal clubs, and especially the meetings where I conducted a comprehensive review of a topic I had chosen myself and presented it, still support my knowledge and research today.

I decided to continue on to the Doctoral Programs because I didn't want to leave my new research theme from the master's program unfinished. During the Doctoral Programs, in addition to an on-campus scholarship, the MEXT COE program was still available at the time, so I was able to get by without much financial burden. Furthermore, the Faculty of Science and Technology's Fujiwara Scholarship, which I received in my third year of the doctoral program, holds an annual reunion for recipients. This provides an opportunity to reconnect with classmates, as well as senior and junior alumni who are active in society even after completing the Doctoral Programs, which clearly shows the strong bond among Keio University alumni and Keio students (although I have hardly been able to participate since I am now in the Kansai region).

After obtaining my degree, I spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow under Professor Sulikowski at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, USA, before joining my current position at NAIST. Unlike a typical university, NAIST has no undergraduate faculties and is a graduate-only institution, which makes it an environment where one can concentrate on research. Although I have moved quite far from the synthesis of natural products that I worked on at Keio University and Vanderbilt University, I was very pleased to receive the NAIST Academic Award for Encouragement of Research last year, which marked the 10th anniversary of receiving my degree. I am delighted that my work on heterocyclic chemistry and heavy main group element chemistry, based on the development of synthetic methodologies I started at NAIST, was recognized. I intend to continue developing my own original research and contribute to the scientific community and society through new developments in chemistry.

Incidentally, our university has many graduate students from overseas, including China and Indonesia. As someone who spent my time from third grade to ninth grade in Indonesia, it is deeply moving to be able to give back to the country that took care of me back then through education. Perhaps because of this connection, since coming to NAIST, I have been given many opportunities to participate in related symposia and visit Indonesian universities with which we have agreements. On the other hand, even after coming to the Kansai region, my ties with Keio University remain strong. I have had numerous opportunities to be with Keio University alumni who are active at the forefront of their fields, not only on campus and at neighboring universities but also at gatherings in interdisciplinary fields such as Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas. I feel more and more that this ability to connect with many Keio University alumni even after entering the workforce is a strength of Keio University.

Keio University provides an environment that supports and encourages you to pursue the interesting goals you strongly want to achieve of your own volition. When you enroll, I hope you will actively take advantage of these opportunities and find that one thing that makes you say, "This is it!"—something that will define your life.