The joy of hands-on experiments. Days devoted to research, aiming to advance organic semiconductors.

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From Keio Senior High School, a private high school in Kanagawa Prefecture.

In junior high and high school, he poured his passion into track and field. His childhood love for living creatures nurtured an interest in science, which eventually led him to the Faculty of Science and Technology. In his second year of university, he entered the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering), where he says he was awakened to the fun of conducting his own experiments through trial and error. Now in his first year of his master's program, he is in the Noda Laboratory, researching the thermal properties of organic semiconductors, a mechanism that is still largely unexplained. We asked him about his story, from his undergraduate days when he discovered the appeal of uncovering things through hands-on experimentation to the present.

[*] Academic year at the time of the interview (November 2020).

I attended an affiliated school of Keio University for junior high and high school. Since I advanced internally from high school, I didn't have to take an entrance exam, so the curriculum was spread out over three years, and my life revolved around club activities. Classes ended at 3:00 p.m., and then I had club activities until around 7:30 p.m. I was in the track and field club, which I had been a part of since junior high, and from high school, I specialized in the 400m. In addition to practicing five days a week, I also competed in tournaments on weekends during the season, so I trained a lot. In the 400m, I was selected for the relay team, and in my final high school tournament, we won the Yokohama district tournament and were able to compete in the prefectural tournament.

Although I grew up in the city, as a child I loved living creatures, catching insects in nearby parks, and I kept many pets at home, including beetles, turtles, killifish, and newts. This sparked my interest in science, and I wanted to study it more deeply. In junior high and high school, I was so absorbed in club activities that my passion for living creatures waned, but the desire to pursue a path in science remained. Before enrolling, I visited the Yagami Campus, where the Faculty of Science and Technology is located, several times. I was impressed by the excellent facilities and environment and decided to enter the Faculty of Science and Technology.

My high school building was on the Hiyoshi Campus grounds, and I sometimes used the university co-op, so the university felt familiar. A friend from my high school track and field club was also in the same department, which was a great comfort. However, since I didn't take an entrance exam, I was worried about my academic abilities. After entering university, I keenly felt that my foundation was lacking compared to those who had gone through the exam process. In my first year, I studied a wide range of basic subjects, so I took thorough notes in class, bought my own reference books to study, and asked friends who had entered through the general entrance examination to teach me how to study, somehow managing to keep up. Since studying was tough, I chose a bowling club instead of continuing with track and field. I was serious about it, even getting my own ball, but the frequency was such that it wouldn't interfere with my studies. Or so I thought, but I gradually got hooked, and by the fall of my first year, I was practicing five or six times a week (laughs).

A major feature of the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering), where I was an undergraduate, is that the range of fields you can study—such as semiconductors, electric circuits, and communications—is broader than in other departments. I think it was ultimately a good thing that I was able to learn about so many different things, from information science and AI to semiconductor experiments and communications, and find what interested me among them. The advantage is that with so many options, it's easier to make choices that suit you, such as laboratory assignments and future career paths.

Also, in my second year, there was a class with a guidance system where one faculty member was assigned to every four students. The faculty member who supervised me there provided very thorough guidance, allowing me to visit his office on the Yagami Campus, which I rarely had the chance to do before, and giving me advice on my reports.

The student experiments I did in my third year as an undergraduate are particularly memorable. In my first and second years, I did basic experiments, and from the third year, I started working on specialized ones. I conducted various experiments, including those on communications, semiconductors, and light diffraction, and it was a lot of fun to see what I had learned in lectures as actual phenomena.

And above all, it was deeply moving when I compiled the results of my experiments from my fourth year and finished writing my graduation thesis. While I was conducting the experiments, I was so desperate to succeed and get data that I couldn't imagine the final product, and I was worried if I could really finish the thesis. But when I actually started writing, organizing the results of my experiments deepened my understanding even further. The content was also related to my current research, and Associate Professor Noda of my laboratory taught me many things, including giving me advice on experimental results that I couldn't fully interpret on my own.

I am currently researching the thermal properties of organic semiconductors. Typical semiconductors are mostly made of inorganic materials like silicon, and organic materials are an unexplored field. However, organic materials are more flexible than inorganic ones, so they have various possibilities, such as being applied to smartphones (devices) that can be bent or rolled up. However, the performance of the semiconductors themselves is still at a low level, so we are in the stage of conducting basic research to improve performance and achieve practical application.

Recently, terms like "organic EL" and "organic displays" have become widely known and commercialized, but organic semiconductors have a property of being poor heat conductors. When used in smartphones, this can prevent heat dissipation and adversely affect the device. To solve this, I am researching whether it is possible to increase and control thermal conductivity.

The properties of semiconductors can be controlled by adding other materials. This addition is called "doping," and I am researching whether heat can be controlled by doping semiconductors. If we can control the thermal properties, the adverse effects of heat on devices will be eliminated. It also enables applications as a new energy source, such as converting heat into electricity. I hope to shape a new initiative on thermal conductivity measurement into some form of research results by the middle of next year.

It started when I found semiconductors to be the most interesting among the experiments I did in the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering). In the fall of my third year, I conducted an experiment where I actually fabricated devices and measured their characteristics, and I felt that a laboratory focused on hands-on experiments was a good fit for me. There are few semiconductor laboratories to begin with, but among them, I chose the Noda Laboratory, which conducts research on organic semiconductors.

Associate Professor Noda is a relatively young faculty member in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, has a close relationship with students, and has a friendly personality, which is another reason I chose this laboratory. He gives me advice not only on my research but also on other matters.

I enjoy conducting research through trial and error, so in the future, I would like to be involved in research and development (R&D) at a manufacturing company. My specific career path is not yet decided as job hunting has not yet begun in earnest, but I am doing internships at such companies. However, whereas in a normal year there would be work experience opportunities where you visit the company, this year it's an online format where you just hear about the company and industry. I'm still exploring my options. My current research is on semiconductors, but I'm not particular about the field and would like to aim for a place where I can do hands-on experiments.