Dr. Xu Yuping, a lab alumna and former Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, got married. Congratulations!

Chen, a double-degree student with Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), returned to China to prepare his master’s thesis at BUCT. He will come back next year for his master’s thesis defense at NITech.

We invited Prof. Dr. Patrik Hoffmann of Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), our collaborative research partner, who gave a special lecture and held technical discussions with our students and faculty.

Lab members gathered to celebrate Prof. Shirai’s birthday and to cheer on the B4 students preparing for the graduate school entrance exams.

For our lab recreation, we went to the Chita Peninsula and enjoyed a BBQ by the sea.

The whole lab celebrated the members who graduated and completed their degrees.

We presented our research results at the Center’s results briefing. After the briefing, we socialized with the Center’s faculty and students from other laboratories at a reception.

We participated in the 24th International Symposium on Eco-materials Processing and Design (ISEPD2026, January 12–15, Hilton Wuhan Riverside) and gave oral presentations of our research results. Takumi Watanabe, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, received the Best Oral Award.

We attended Pacifichem 2025, the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies held in Honolulu, and presented our research results.

At the lab's year-end party, we split into teams, cooked local specialties from members' hometowns, and competed on the results.

We held a welcome party for Chen, who joined the lab from Beijing University of Chemical Technology through the double degree program, and everyone made takoyaki together.

Students and staff went on a lab trip to Busan, Korea, enjoying Gamcheon Culture Village, the seaside scenery and street food. (Prof. Shirai unfortunately could not join.)

For our summer lab recreation, we went to the Chita Peninsula and enjoyed a seaside BBQ and the sunflower fields at the flower park.

We held a welcome party for the new fourth-year undergraduate students while enjoying the cherry blossoms in full bloom at Tsuruma Park.

We celebrated our graduating members together. The lab also kindly held an early celebration of Shirai’s promotion to full professor.

We invited Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Thu Hien of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam, our collaborative research partner, who gave a special lecture.

We participated in the Material Fabrication Design (MFD) Workshop of the Ceramic Society of Japan held in Okinawa and presented our research.

We invited Dr. Michael Stuer and Prof. Dr. Patrik Hoffmann of Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), our collaborative research partners, for special lectures and technical discussions.

We held our annual New Year mochi party and celebrated the start of the year together over rice cakes.

We held our lab year-end party and wrapped up the year together over yakiniku (Japanese barbecue).

The Shirai Research Group appeared in a promotional video by Anton Paar for its in-situ Raman spectroscopy / liquid-phase microwave synthesis system. These photos show the filming in our laboratory.
Watch the video on YouTube ›

We visited our collaborative partner, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and held a joint seminar with the laboratory of Assoc. Prof. Tran Thi Thu Hien, with research presentations and exchanges between students. During our stay, we also experienced Vietnamese culture, including the streets of Hanoi and the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.

We presented our research at the E-MRS 2024 Fall Meeting held in Warsaw, Poland, and also visited Warsaw Old Town and Kraków.

We held our annual pep rally to cheer on the fourth-year students ahead of the graduate school entrance exam.

We visited Dr. Ishimatsu at the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and toured his laboratory. Mr. Goke, a junior colleague from Prof. Shirai’s student days, also joined us, and we enjoyed Kuala Lumpur together.

We visited the laboratories of Prof. Dr. Patrik Hoffmann and Dr. Michael Stuer at Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), our collaborative partners, and discussed future international collaboration. On the way home, we happened to run into our friends, the Ishizaki family, at the airport supermarket.

We visited Stanford University in the USA, where our former colleague Dr. Hadi works. He showed us around the campus, and we also visited San Francisco.

We carried out XAFS (X-ray absorption fine structure) measurements on glass-based materials developed in our lab at the Aichi Synchrotron Radiation Center (Aichi SR).

We held our annual cherry-blossom picnic at Tsuruma Park to welcome the new students and staff who joined the lab.

We celebrated our graduating members and said farewell to departing staff members. As is our tradition, each graduate received a “quality certificate” from the lab. Congratulations to all our graduates, and many thanks to our staff!

We invited our collaborators from Turkey, Prof. Dr. Hasan GÖÇMEZ (Kütahya Dumlupınar University), Prof. Dr. Cihangir DURAN (Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University) and Prof. Dr. Hüseyin YILMAZ (Gebze Technical University), for special lectures, technical discussions and talks on future collaboration. We also visited AIST Chubu together and showed them around Shirakawa-go and Hida-Takayama.

We participated in the 22nd International Symposium on Eco-materials Processing and Design (ISEPD2024, January 21–24, Centara Korat) and presented our research results. We also met Dr. Kong Apiluck Dorji (King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang), an alumnus of the Advanced Ceramics Research Center.

Dr. Tatsuki Ohji, Visiting Professor at the Advanced Ceramics Research Center, gave a special lecture for our students, followed by a lively Q&A session.