Forging a new path with the intellectual curiosity to take on any field and the thinking skills cultivated day by day.

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From Numazu Higashi High School, Shizuoka Prefecture

I was so good at math from junior high school that I could declare, "I'm 120% a science person." After a life of balancing basketball, academics, and hobbies at a high school that promoted both literary and martial arts, I entered the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University. It was precisely because I was exposed to the Department of Applied Chemistry, a field that broadly covers chemistry, that I found the research theme I was meant to pursue. Driven by the thinking skills I developed through entrance exam studies in high school and research at university, along with my innate intellectual curiosity, I am dedicated to research that can contribute to the real world.

[*]Academic year at the time of the interview (July 2019).

I attended a high school that promoted both literary and martial arts, so my life was a balance of club activities six days a week and my studies. The practices for the Basketball Team I belonged to were tough, and there were times I found it difficult, but I think I was able to live with a sense of fulfillment. In addition, I was also in a band as a hobby, finding spare time to practice bass or perform at the school festival. I think I was busier and slept less than I do now. I continued with the band after entering university, and I feel that the time management skills I built up in high school are still useful today.

I started attending a Juku in my first year of high school, studying there for about three hours, two to three times a week after my club activities. I was mainly studying math and English steadily. I was good friends with my Juku classmates, and I enjoyed going to the Juku itself, so it was an environment where studying wasn't a burden. Also, my Juku teacher was someone who explained things logically, so I believe I developed the ability to think about various things logically and to think through things I didn't understand in a sequential manner. I'm glad I studied for the entrance exams because I was able to build the foundation for my current research thinking.

Keio University has produced many individuals who are active at the forefront in Japan and around the world. The reason I decided to enroll was that while I wanted to become such a person myself, I also wanted to meet people with that kind of potential and become friends who could inspire each other. I chose the Faculty of Science and Technology because I like science subjects and, although it was vague, I had a romantic notion of science. Cutting-edge technology is just cool, isn't it? I especially liked math because I could logically think through the parts that don't appear in the solution, like "Why did I transform the equation this way?" or "Why did I use this formula?" to arrive at the answer.

Before enrolling, my image was, to put it simply, "stylish Tokyo university students" (laughs). Of course, I also had the image that they had a high level of basic academic ability and were brilliant. What I felt after enrolling was that even within the same Keio University, the character differs by faculty, and that, like most university students, they aren't always studying (laughs). However, once you start a serious conversation, you really sense the brilliance and intelligence of many people, and my impression is that there are many students who are "efficient" in a good way. There are also many people with strong communication skills, and when I talk to friends who have advanced into other fields within the Faculty of Science and Technology, I feel inspired that I need to study more myself.

I hadn't decided from the beginning, but one reason I chose the Department of Applied Chemistry after entering "School 3[*]" is its large scale and high number of students. The Department of Applied Chemistry has over 100 students in each academic year, and the laboratories themselves are large. This has its pros and cons, and I'm sure some people think it's better to focus on research in a smaller group, but in my lab, each person has their own theme, so there's the advantage of seeing a variety of other research up close. Also, Keio University has strong alumni connections, and among them, the long-established Department of Applied Chemistry has many graduates, so I felt it would be a future advantage in building connections with people. In fact, I often had the opportunity to speak with recruiters who were graduates of the Department of Applied Chemistry during my job search.

And another reason is that the Department of Applied Chemistry offers a wide range of fields, such as organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and chemical engineering, providing many options. It's difficult to decide what you want to do while you're still in high school, and even when I first advanced to the Department of Applied Chemistry, I hadn't yet determined my direction. However, as I was exposed to various fields in my second and third years, I was able to find the field where I wanted to deepen my expertise: "chemical engineering." The catalyst for this was the seminar course "Exercises in Chemical Engineering." Since I originally liked math, I found it interesting to calculate values and optimize processes. Chemical engineering also has a strong physical aspect, so I can use both physics and chemistry. It was a field I had never encountered before, which made it novel, and I was attracted to its diversity and practicality.

[*]School 3... At the time of enrollment in 2014, this was a "School" from which students could advance to one of four departments: the Department of Applied Chemistry, the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics, the Department of Chemistry, or the Department of Biosciences and Informatics. The names and composition of each School will be changed for students enrolling from the 2020 academic year.

During my undergraduate years, I was devoted to my student club activities. In a club called the "Keio Beatles Study Group," I played bass, guitar, and vocals, and also tried the drums. My most memorable experience was performing on the main stage at the Mita Festival in my third year. In my entire performance history, the opportunity to play on such a professional stage in front of a large audience was rare, so I practiced with all my might, and the actual performance was extremely enjoyable and gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I've retired from the club now, so I'm into exploring research fields outside my specialty. I became interested in the recent AI boom and started studying programming on my own. It's not directly related to my own research, but I thought it might be interesting if I could integrate it in the future. Besides, when I explore other research fields, I sometimes discover new ways of thinking or find things I can feed back into my own research. As a science person through and through, I try to approach everything with intellectual curiosity and expose myself to new fields.

I belong to the Chemical Engineering Laboratory, where we mainly research fine bubbles, which are tiny bubbles. Within the Department of Applied Chemistry, it's a large lab with just under 30 people, and when I was first assigned, there were nine students in my year. When the lab has a lot of people, it feels like a high school class, and it's fun to come to the lab every day. If you advance to the master's program, you end up spending a total of three years in the lab, so I've realized how important it is to have close friends and enjoy your research life.

Another characteristic is that we have many joint research projects with companies. We don't just stay within the lab; we conduct joint research with a wide variety of manufacturers, such as chemical and food makers, as well as the engineering industry. The number varies from year to year, but we have more than 10 projects, and there are opportunities to discuss with corporate researchers, which makes it easier to imagine what it's like to be out in the working world and also leads to a sense of purpose.

I am conducting research on fluid vibrations. Water and air are such familiar substances, yet there are almost no opportunities to learn about fluids before high school. It's a research field I encountered at university and found fascinating. I observe the vibration of the liquid surface caused by introducing bubbles into a water tank, but normally, the flow of water is invisible. Therefore, by adding small particles and illuminating them with a laser to "visualize" the flow, we can determine its velocity, or we can solve flow-related equations using a computer to reproduce and analyze the actual flow.

Basically, the field of chemical engineering is a practical discipline useful in factories, such as when considering the processes for building chemical plants or chemical facilities (a general term for factory facilities and equipment that produce chemical products).

For example, if a tank in a factory contains a hazardous liquid, the tank could break if the liquid vibrates. In such cases, applying my research can predict the conditions under which vibrations will cease, allowing the factory to operate safely. Water and air are such familiar substances, yet there are almost no opportunities to learn about fluids before high school. It's a research field I encountered at university and found fascinating. I observe the vibration of the liquid surface caused by introducing bubbles into a water tank, but normally, the flow of water is invisible. Therefore, by adding small particles and illuminating them with a laser to "visualize" the flow, we can determine its velocity, or we can solve flow-related equations using a computer to reproduce and analyze the actual flow.

Last summer, I presented this research on fluid vibrations at an academic conference for the first time. I don't usually have many opportunities to present and discuss my work with people outside the lab, so it was a valuable experience. Happily, I was able to win a student award, which gave me a real sense that my research had been recognized.

I have a job offer for a technical position at a chemical manufacturer. During my job search, I was very conflicted about whether I should leverage my specialty, but fortunately, I love my field, so I decided to make use of it. Among the technical positions, I plan to be involved in production engineering. To make things, there are research positions that "create 1 from 0" in the lab, and production engineering positions that "make 10 from 1," but it's the production engineers and the people on the factory floor who actually support manufacturing. Production engineering plays the role of connecting the lab and the factory, and it's an indispensable job in the manufacturing industry, so I find it rewarding. In that role, I think it would be interesting if I could realize a smart factory by incorporating IT technology into the factory to improve efficiency.