TOHOKU UNIVERSITY CREATING GLOBAL EXCELLENCE

This advertorial is a reprint from the September 3, 2010 issue of Science

AAAS/Science Business Office Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITYWORLD-CLASS EXCELLENCE IN CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH

AND INTERNATIONALLY BASED EDUCATION

Tohoku University is a research-oriented institute located in Sendai—the ‘City of Trees’—in the heart of the Tohoku (northeast) region of Japan. The university was estab-lished in 1907 as Japan’s third Imperial University, and to-day its researchers are internationally recognized for their outstanding contributions especially in materials science, physics, chemistry, engineering, and medicine.

THE INOUE PLAN 2007

AKIHISA INOUE, pRESIdENT

In March 2007, with a view to enhancing Tohoku University’s standing as one of the world’s premier institutes of education and research, the uni-versity launched the ‘Inoue Plan 2007’. “This plan has five pillars,” says Inoue. “Education, research, social contribution, campus environment, and organization/management. The key words are ‘challenge’, ‘creation’, and ‘innovation’.”

The Inoue Plan introduces a new, innovative liberal arts curriculum, which includes an overseas internship program. The university has also launched the Institute for International Advanced Research and Educa-tion and the Advanced Institute of Materials Research. The latter is one of the Japanese government’s World Premier Research Center Initia-tives and is searching for breakthroughs by fusing multiple conventional research fields and nurturing world leaders in the field of materials sci-ence. Specific targets of the Inoue plan include increasing the number of international teachers from the present 130 to 300, and increasing the number of international students from 1,500 to 3,000 by 2022.

Notably, the world academic citation rankings complied by Thomson Scientific for January 1999 to December 2009 placed Tohoku University third worldwide (first in Japan) in materials science, tenth (second in Japan) in physics, and 18th (fifth in Japan) in chemistry.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Research Laboratory; University House Sanjo; Japanese Archery Club; International Festival

© City of Sendai

CONTRIBUTING TO HUMANITY AS A WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITY“By applying the knowledge we have accumulated over the past century and encouraging innovative research and education, our university is committed to playing a leading role as a ‘world-class university’ to over-come the challenges faced by humanity today,” says Akihisa Inoue, the 20th president of Tohoku University, appointed in 2006. “Since the uni-versity was established in 1907, the philosophy has always been to put ‘Research First’ while maintaining an ‘Open-Door’ policy to emphasize 'Practice-Oriented Research and Education’.”

Tohoku University is a comprehensive university comprising 10 under-graduate faculties, 16 graduate schools, 3 professional graduate schools and 5 research institutes. It is one of Japan’s leading universities, with approximately 5,700 faculty and staff and 18,000 students. As a research university, it embodies the notion that good teaching practice is founded on advanced research capabilities.

“According to a survey by the Asahi Shimbun [newspaper], Japanese high schools chose Tohoku University as the best Japanese university in both the ‘overall assessment’ and ‘academic and personal development’ categories,” says Inoue.

Sendai has been a thriving center of culture, scientific discovery, and entrepreneurship since the samurai Lord Masamune Date laid his cas-tle’s foundations there. The city has been internationally active for more than 400 years, with records showing that in 1613 Masamune dispatched a samurai named Tsunenaga Hasekura on a diplomatic mission to Spain and Rome. Like Masamune, Tohoku University continues to reach out to the world in the pursuit of truth. Intriguingly, the university’s main campus is located in Aobayama, the site of Masamune Date’s Sendai Castle.

Modern Sendai has a population of approximately one million, with about 80,000 students attending 13 universities, and 6 junior and techni-cal colleges in the area.

Logistically the city is less than 100 minutes from Tokyo and less than one hour from hot springs, ski resorts, and the stunning scenery of Mat-sushima Bay. Daily life in Sendai is quiet, peaceful, and cultural. The commute from home to lab is less than 30 minutes for most students and academics alike. The moderate cost of living offers a high quality of life in an environment conducive to creative thought.

© City of Sendai

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Enhancing international exchanges and global networks is a high priority for Tohoku University. To promote academic and industrial collaboration globally, it actively participates in three inter-university consortia: APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities); T.I.M.E. (Top Industrial Managers for Eu-rope); and AEARU (the Association of East Asian Research Universities). Furthermore, the university has exchange agreements with 445 institutions in 45 countries and regions and has 16 overseas offices in nine countries.

Tohoku University offers excellent support for its international students and researchers. The Center for International Exchange assists international students with Japanese language courses, finds ac-commodation at both university dormitories and private apartments, and promotes exchanges with local students and the people of Sendai.

The university also has a wide range of scholarships for international students including the Presi-dent Fellowship program launched in April 2010. When it’s time to graduate, the university offers career advice for international students, as well as job fairs and workshops on Japanese culture and communication skills.

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

"The key words are ‘challenge’, ‘creation’, and ‘innovation’.” INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND STRONG LEADERSHIP In 2009, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technol-ogy (MEXT) selected Tohoku University as one of 13 centers as part of the Global 30 Project for Establishing Core Universities for Internationalization (G30). The main goal of this initiative is to give international and Japanese students the opportunity to study courses taught in English. “We are seizing this opportunity to promote the in-ternationalization of education,” says In-oue. “We are developing degree programs offered completely in English to meet all international student needs.”

Tohoku University has a history of strong leadership based on its ‘Open Door’ policy. In 1913, it was the first of Japan’s universities to admit female students—Chika Kuroda, Ume Tange, and Raku Makita. Needless to say, Tohoku University is still a leader in supporting female researchers.

Another example is the Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936), who in 1904 was the first foreign student admitted to Sendai Medical College—the predecessor of the School of Medicine at Tohoku University. Later, in 1906 Lu Xun withdrew from medicine to study literature and returned to China where he wrote many influential works, in-cluding ‘The True Story of Ah Q’. Lu Xun is also remembered for his story entitled ‘Fujino Sensei’, a fictionalized account of his experiences with his mentor, Professor Fujino, at Tohoku.

Now, in the 21st century, Tohoku Univer-sity is setting new standards as an open, dynamic, and innovative world-class uni-versity. “We welcome talented people from all backgrounds and all over the world to join us,” says Inoue.

GLOBAL NETWORKS AND SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Tohoku University is acknowledged as being the birthplace of ideas and inventions that led to the creation of new industries. In 1932, the pioneering work of Kotaro Honda—the first director of the Institute of Materi-als Research—led to the invention of ‘KS magnet steel’, at the time the strongest permanently magnetic material. Other innovative contributions include the Yagi-Uda antenna proposed by Hidetsugu Yagi and produced by Shintaro Uda; Fujio Masuoka’s flash memory; and in 2002, the development of the soft laser desorption/ionization method for mass spectroscopic analysis of proteins by Nobel laureate Koichi Tanaka, a graduate of the Tohoku University’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

There are also a myriad of examples of current cutting-edge research at Tohoku University:

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Tohoku Universityhttp://www.tohoku.ac.jp/english/

The Inoue plan 2007http://www.bureau.tohoku.ac.jp/president/ open/plan/Inoue_Plan_2009.pdf

Global COEhttp://www.bureau.tohoku.ac.jp/kenkyo/global-coe/global-coe.html

Global 30 project (G30)http://www.fgl.tohoku.ac.jp/

Advanced Institute for Material Research (WpI-AIMR)http://www.wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp/en/index.php

Hideo Ohnohttp://www.csis.tohoku.ac.jp/english/

Kunio Inouehttp://www.awa.tohoku.ac.jp/rcnse/

Yoshitomo Okahttp://www-nm.gcoe.med.tohoku.ac.jp/ english/investigators/oka/index.html

HIdEO OHNO is the Director of the Center of Spintronics Inte-grated Systems. In his research on ‘spintronics’ he is devising ways of controlling the spin of electrons to realize new functional-ities in semiconductors and metals. Ohno has succeeded for the first time in electrically controlling the magnetic phase of a ferro-magnetic material, leading to a new paradigm of low power func-tional devices. Ohno also fabricated a magnetic tunnel junction device exhibiting an ‘on/off’ resistance difference of 600%—the largest reported to date. These spintronic devices offer a promis-ing route to resolving high power consumption and interconnect delay issues of current integrated circuits.

KUNIO INOUE is the Director of the Research Center for Neu-trino Science. In 2005, he observed so-called ‘geoneutrinos’ using the KamLAND antineutrino detector. Geoneutrinos result from the decay of radioactive elements deep within the earth. This new observation will provide a deeper insight into heat gen-eration inside the earth. Inoue is also the head of the ‘Weaving Science Web beyond Particle-Matter Hierarchy’ Global Center of Excellence (GCOE) program launched in 2008. This international and interdisciplinary project aims to formulate a unified under-standing of the universe via collaborative research in fields of mathematics, physics, and astronomy.

YOSHITOMO OKA is the head of the GCOE on ‘Conquest of Signal Transduction Diseases with Network Medicine’. Oka is renowned for his pioneering work on glucose transport. In col-laboration with Hideki Katagiri, Oka discovered that metabolic information is delivered to the brain, which transmits signals to maintain the homeostasis of the whole body also via neuronal routes—metabolic information highways. This concept led to the ‘Network Medicine’ GCOE project for exploring the concept that both the onset and progress of disease are governed by a break-down of the body’s system of networks. The project members are developing multilevel, temporal, and spatial integration models to investigate unknown links among diseases—the so-called ‘dis-easome’—and consequently innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive strategies.

Electrical control of magnetic phases in ferromagnetic semiconductors

Neutrino geophysics pioneered by KamLAND

Metabolic information highways ~Inter-organ metabolic communication~

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

38°N

140°E

●Tokyo●Nagoya

●Osaka●Fukuoka

Kyoto●

●Sapporo

●

Washington●

Lisbon●

Seoul

San Francisco●

Athens●

Melbourne●

Tohoku region

Sendai

Sendai City,Miyagi Pref.

JAPAN•Location of Tohoku University

•FY 2009 Financial Summary (as of June 1, 2010)

data and Overview of Tohoku University

•Number of Students (as of May 1, 2010)

Internationalstudents

Schoolenrollment

10,997 133

4,402 464

2,734 501

34 0

633 413

18,800 1,511

Undergraduatestudents

Graduate students(Master’s course, Professional Degree Program)

Graduate students (Doctoral Course)

Students at Affiliated Schools

Research students/Others

Total

Faculty Members 2,892

Professors 832

Associate Professors 692

Senior Assistant Professors 149

Assistant Professors 1,093

Research Assistant 126

Administrative/Technical staff/Others 2,936

Total 5,828

•Number of Faculty and Staff Members (as of May 1, 2010)

International program of Tohoku University (Global 30)

September 2010

Produced by

Tohoku University

1-1 Katahira 2-chome,

Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577 JAPAN

URL: http://www.tohoku.ac.jp/english/

Copyright © 2010 Tohoku University

•Graduate Degree Courses Taught in English

Name of Course School DegreeStarting

Year

International Doctoral Program in Engineering, Information Sciences and Environmental Studies

Graduate School of Engineering, Information Sciences, and Environmental Studies

Doctoral 2001

International Graduate Program for Advanced Science (IGPAS)

Graduate School of ScienceMasters and Doctoral

2004

International Graduate Program in Human Security

Graduate School of Medicine, Environmental Studies, Agricultural Science, and International Cultural Studies

Masters and Doctoral

2005

International Program for Environmental Sustainability Science

Graduate School of Environmental Studies

Masters and Doctoral

2009

International Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Course-Graduate (IMAC-G)

Graduate School of Engineering

Masters and Doctoral

2010

International Materials Science and Engineering Course (IMSE)

Graduate School of Engineering

Masters 2010

International Program in Economics and Management (IPEM)

Graduate School of Economics and Management

Masters and Doctoral

2010

Information Technology Course

Graduate School of Information Sciences

Masters 2011

Interface Oral Health Science Course

Graduate School of Dentistry Doctoral 2011

International Course of Life Sciences

Graduate School of Life Sciences

Masters and Doctoral

2011

Network Medicine Course Graduate School of Medicine Doctoral 2012

Basic Medicine Course Graduate School of Medicine Masters 2012

International Graduate Program in Language Sciences

Graduate School of International Cultural Studies

Masters 2013

•Undergraduate Degree Courses Taught in English

Name of Course School DegreeStarting

Year

International Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Course-Undergraduate(IMAC-U)

School of Engineering Bachelor 2011

Advanced Molecular Chemistry Course

Faculty of Science Bachelor 2011

Applied Marine Biology Course Faculty of Agriculture Bachelor 2011

140 ºE

38 ºN

49,643 35.8%

24,611 17.7%

45,395 32.7%

34,763 25.1%

20,814 15.0%

19,739 14.2%

13,296 9.6%

10,673 7.7%

20,814 15.0%

19,739 14.2%

13,296 9.6%

Research Grants

Facilities Construction/Maintenance

Income fromStudent Tuition Fees etc.

Income from University Hospital

Subsidies for Management Expenses

Research Grants

Industry/Academia/Government Collaborative Research and Endowment Projects

Facilities Construction/Maintenance

4,769 3.4%

Repayment of Long-Term Debentures Material Items

Personnel

Revenue Total

138,776(million yen)

Budgetary Expenses138,776

(Unit million yen)

Budgetary Income138,776

(Unit million yen)

Industry/Academia/Government Collaborative Research and Endowment Projects

84,927 61.2%

Total Revenue from University Management