Progress Plan for Maintaining Academy Center Certification
World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI)
Host Institution

Tohoku University

Research Center

Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR)

Host Institution Head
Center Director
Administrative Director

Hideo Ohno
Shin-ichi Orimo
Nobuyuki Nishiyama

Please prepare this Progress plan based on your application for WPI Academy. Summarize the Center’s future plans with regard to thefollowing 8 items within five A-4 pages. (Also fill out the appendices at the end of this form.)

1. Overall Image of Your Center* Describe the Center’s overall image including its identity.

The goal of AIMR stipulated in the proposal for its foundation in FY2007 was to create new materials
with innovative functions through a novel method of atomic and molecular control departing fromtraditional approaches, construct devices based on new fundamental paradigms, and contribute to society
by building a foundation for safe and rich life. In order to achieve this goal, when the Interim Evaluation
was carried out in FY2011, AIMR stipulated its identity as “discovering common elements and universal
principles among different materials and creating new materials science which can develop new materials
based

on

predictions,”

andproposedaninnovative

research

strategy

topromote“mathematics-materials science collaboration” at an institutional level. Based on the scientificprinciples achieved through the mathematics-materials science collaboration, AIMR strengthened
international cooperation network with world-leading institutions, and now AIMR is recognized as a hub ofinternational collaborations and global brain circulation. In FY2017, the following fiscal year after thetermination of the WPI funding period, AIMR was admitted to "WPI Academy," and has made maximum
efforts to keep "World Premier Status" given by WPI Program Committee for AIMR as an evaluation
result. AIMR will maintain the basic policy and direction described above. Under the leadership of Center
Director Prof. Shin-ichi Orimo, AIMR will develop new materials and devices and contribute to society
through the implementation of "Advanced Target Projects" which raise the mathematics-materials
science collaboration to the next stage where new real materials could be created.

2. Mid- to Long-term Research Objectives and Strategies* Describe new challenges in the Center’s research objectives and plans after FY 2020.
* Describe your future research strategy and plans and research organization including your line-up of Principal Investigators, and youroutlook for fostering and securing the next generation of researchers.

AIMR's final goal is to contribute to society by creating new functional materials and developing new
devices. If we apply the knowledge obtained through mathematics-materials science collaboration so far
to the creation of new materials, we need to convert the information based on mathematics into the words

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of materials science. To realize this, a materials scientist who has substantial experience in developing newmaterials and devices should become the leader and a new system which can develop novel materials
through incorporating new mathematical tools appropriate for materials design should be introduced withthe support of mathematicians. Prof. Shin-ichi Orimo (joined AIMR as a Principal Investigator on January
1st, 2013, became Deputy Center Director on November 1st, 2018, and became Center Director on
October 1st, 2019) was appointed as the new leader to push AIMR into this new direction. Under thesupervision by the new Center Director Prof. Orimo, AIMR researchers discussed the results obtained by
the previous Target Projects (TP1-4) and subtracted bottlenecks which seemed to prevent thedevelopment of new materials, and set the following three Advanced Target Projects (ATPs):[ATP1] Local Structure Control in Topological Functional Materials[ATP2] Integrated Control of Bond Variation and its Time Evolution[ATP3] Improvement of Self-Organization Technology and Control of Biological Response
Through the newly launched ATPs, AIMR will deepen and mature the mathematics-materials sciencecollaboration that has been developed over the past decade, and make it a standard direction ofmaterials science in the 21st century. Specifically, in ATP1, by the analysis for topological phases inaperiodic system and complementary use of network information and geometric one, we will specify the
relationship between local structure and global properties, and search for new quantum-element materials,
leading to novel electronic and magnetic devices in the future. In ATP2, through time series analysis using
persistent homology and multi-modality data assimilation, we will realize precise control of light elementionics, leading to novel energy devices. In ATP3, through the prediction and control by phase-field model,
and subtraction of the relationship between geometry and dynamical behavior in complicated networks,
we will control living/non-living interface and network response in living systems, leading to novel bio- andmedical devices. With respect to “Spin-centered materials science” and “Design of hierarchical structure
based on theoretical prediction” which has been recognized as priority areas are included in these ATPs
constructively. AIMR assigns young Professors and Associate Professors to be the leaders of ATPs and also
makes an effort to foster new leaders. Specific line-up of Principal Investigators (PIs) and outlook for
fostering and securing the next generation of researchers will be described in the next section.

3. Management System of the Research Organization* Describe the system of organizational management via which the Center will execute the above-described research strategy and plans.
* In Appendix 1-3, list the Principal Investigators, enter the number of Center personnel (researchers, research-support staff, andadministrative staff), and provide a diagram of the Center’s organizational management system.

Center Director Prof. Shin-ichi Orimo, Deputy Center Director Prof. Hiroshi Suito, a mathematician, andPIs listed in Appendix 1 will be united, pursuing pioneering research (two Junior PIs are not shown in thelist of Appendix 1). In April 2019, two new PIs, Prof. Takafumi Sato (physics) and Prof. Hayato Chiba(mathematics) joined AIMR. Through the international recruitment started at the end of FY2018, AIMR
received Dr. Tomoki Ozawa, a young researcher who has attracted a lot of attention by the achievements inthe theoretical study of topological materials, as a Junior PI (Associate Professor) in February 2020. AIMR
also invited Prof. Gerrit Ernst-Wilhelm Bauer who has been one of the world authorities on spintronics
theory and Prof. Hirotomo Nishihara who has attracted much attention by the achievements in carbon

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AIMRnanomaterials research as new PIs in April 2020. AIMR is gradually changing the priority research areas
depending on the recent global trend. The Total number of researchers and staff members is shown inAppendix 2. AIMR will make its utmost effort to keep young researchers, for example, by employing themwith external funds or utilizing the cross-appointment system. As shown in Appendix 3, the center’sorganization consists of research groups, research support division, and organization for collaborative
research such as overseas Joint Research Centers. Center of Mathematical Sciences for Open Innovation(Head of the center is Prof. Hiroshi Suito, Deputy Director of AIMR) was established in FY2019 to promotecollaboration with outside AIMR including industry, and we hope that this center will also play a role in theincrease of funds from industry. The top-down management by the Center Director is maintained, so thatthe center can be managed with flexibility and quick decision-making. Using the cross-appointment system,
for example, with National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (specifically,
AIST-TohokuU Mathematics for Advanced Materials Open Innovation Laboratory, MathAM-OIL), RIKEN(specifically, iTHEMS, SUURI-COOL Sendai), National Institute for Materials Science, and Kyushu
University, we will promote personnel exchange and strengthen our activities. Furthermore, AIMR will
make an effort to establish a career path for young researchers, for example, a tenure-track system byusing the tenured positions provided by the host institution.

4. Plan for Promoting the International Circulation of World’s Best Brains* Describe your policy and concrete plan for promoting the international circulation of the world’s best brains, which is an important functionof the WPI Academy.

AIMR has conducted joint research with 13 overseas partner institutions. In particular, AIMR has
established Joint Research Centers (joint laboratories) at the three institutions, the University ofCambridge, the University of Chicago, and Tsinghua University so far, and we will continue to employ andplace postdoctoral researchers there to accelerate international joint research. We also ask the postdoctoral
researchers to come to Sendai for their experiences of collaboration with AIMR researchers, and this effort
will lead to global brain circulation. We are planning to set another Joint Research Center in Europe in the
future, and we will examine this plan. We will also perform personnel exchange through Fraunhofer
Project Center established in AIMR and this is one of the advantages of AIMR for promoting global brain
circulation. International Affairs Center (IAC) continues to support AIMR so that AIMR can continue toact as a hub of global brain circulation. Specifically, IAC will support exchange agreements with overseas
institutions and promote researcher exchange between AIMR and overseas institutions through AIMR's
original exchange programs such as GI3 (Global Intellectual Incubation and Integration) Laboratory
Program and AIMR Overseas Dispatch Program for Young Researchers. Although participation ininternational meetings as WPI Center(s) also contributes to international brain circulation, it will be
described in the 6th section "Plan for Sustaining the WPI Brand."5. Plan for Disseminating the WPI Program Achievements* Describe your policy and concrete plan for disseminating WPI center achievements both within the host institution and to otheruniversities, especially their experience and know-how accumulated on establishing top world research institute and advancing system
reforms.

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In June 2017, Tohoku University was named as one of the Designated National Universities, andto strengthen the research capabilities of the university, four world-leading research centers (Core
Research Clusters) for (1) Materials Science, (2) Spintronics, (3) Next-Generation Medical Care, and (4)Disaster Science were established. These Core Research Clusters are modeled after WPI research centersand placed under the umbrella of Organization for Advanced Studies (OAS) the same as AIMR, and AIMR isleading the Core Research Cluster for Materials Science. Since February 2018, a series of international joint
symposia of the two Core Research Clusters for Materials Science and Spintronics has been annually held
and know-how to organize international meetings cultivated by AIMR in the past ten years was fully utilized
for organizing the symposia. Also, when Joint Research Center at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China wasestablished as one of the activities of Core Research Clusters for Materials Science, the know-how
accumulated by AIMR was used. The team playing a central role in the internationalization of Tohoku
University is "International Affairs Center (IAC)." The IAC is the developed organization of the"International Unit" which was established inside the AIMR's Administrative Division in 2011 and played a
key role in the internationalization of AIMR. The IAC was established to disseminate the know-how forinternationalization accumulated by AIMR to the entire university. The IAC is currently dealing with wide
range of international issues, for example, support for the establishment of joint laboratories between
overseas institutions and the departments other than AIMR as well as support for the foreign researchers
working at Tohoku University. It is obvious that experiences and skills accumulated by AIMR in the past
decade have been disseminated to the whole Tohoku University, and AIMR will continue to play a central
role in internationalization, strengthening of research capabilities, and system reform of Tohoku University.

6. Plan for Sustaining the WPI Brand* Describe your plan for sustaining and enhancing the WPI brand.

We will timely renew the center's website, brochures, public relations magazines (AIMR Magazine),
research highlights (AIMResearch), and the introduction of AIMR researchers (AIMR Research Profiles) to
keep their freshness. On the other hand, we are also planning to combine some of the print media andpromote insourcing to maximize the efficiency within the limited budget. Participation in international
meetings such as E-MRS and NanoMat (Japan-France Workshop on Nanomaterials and WPI Workshop on
Materials Science) as WPI Center(s) is one of the effective tools to sustain and enhance the “WPI-brand,”and we will continue these activities. AIMR will host the NanoMat 2021 (The 14th Japan-France Workshop
on Nanomaterials and the 5th WPI Workshop on Materials Science), and it will be a good opportunity toincrease the degree of recognition of AIMR (under consideration concerning the details). "g-RIPS-Sendai"
where students coming from the United States and Japan jointly tackle the problems which sponsor
companies provide and find ways to solve them by using mathematics is also a beneficial event to attract
interest of industry and the community of mathematics. AIMR will continue to promote this program
through Center of Mathematical Sciences for Open Innovation which has been established inside AIMR.

7. Support by Host institution* Describe measures that the host institution is and will take to support and sustain your Center.

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The host institution, Tohoku University, is continuing to provide AIMR with the position as a regulardepartment, authority, resources, and infrastructure even after the termination of the WPI funding
period. Such policy of the university can be seen in the statements of Tohoku University’s “Third Mid-termplan” that strengthening AIMR and constructing world-leading research environment and research support
system are among the university’s goals. Furthermore, the following two descriptions, “Promoting world's
leading research activities in the fields of Materials Science and Spintronics” and “Strategical advancementof cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary research projects by placing Organization for Advanced Studies (OAS)
on the top” are stipulated in "Tohoku University Vision 2030" established by President Dr. Hideo Ohno, andAIMR is recognized as the core department to lead these two activities. As mentioned previously, Tohoku
University was named a Designated National University and the university has established world-leading
research centers for four research fields (Core Research Clusters) including Core Research Cluster for
Materials Science; AIMR is leading the cluster and the additional budget to play this role is provided for
AIMR by the university. Tohoku University will continue to support AIMR to develop the university itself.

8. Resource Allocation Plan

* Describe your plans over a 5-year period for allocating resources acquired from the host institution (e.g., financial resources and positions)and from external research funding to use in carrying out the Center’s functions and activities described above.
* In Appendix 4, enter concrete numbers in the Resource Allocation Plan.

The host institution, Tohoku University, promises to keep permanent staff members (about ten tenure
faculties and about ten administrative staff) already placed at AIMR, and maintain the additional ten
tenure positions provided for AIMR in the WPI funding period. The six of the ten positions have been
occupied by Professors Shigemi Mizukami (PI), Ayumi Hirano (PI), Hiroshi Suito (PI), Hayato Chiba (PI),
Associate Professor Hiroshi Yabu (tenure-track Junior PI), and Associate Professor Tomoki Ozawa(tenure-track Junior PI). The other remaining positions will be gradually used when we have theopportunity. The financial resource from the host institution will be used mainly for employing researchers
who belong to the laboratories of new PIs or Junior PIs joined AIMR using the tenure positions and forkeeping young researchers (employing one researcher for each laboratory) and administrative/support
staff members. Part of the resource will also be used for some projects to maintain international
cooperation. We entrust individual laboratories with the acquisition of research funds for their own
research. However, AIMR will provide research money to start and promote Advanced Target Projects(ATPs) and/or fusion research and strongly support interdisciplinary fusion research based on the AIMR's
identity focusing on mathematics-materials science collaboration. Although the present budget from thehost institution to AIMR is a bit exceeding the amount initially planned when AIMR applied for WPI
Academy Center Certification because additional budget for operating Core Research Cluster for Materials
Science described above is being provided for AIMR, the budget will decrease in the future due to theconstant reduction of the allocation of operational subsidies to national university corporations from thegovernment (see Appendix 4). The many of the administrative staff members of AIMR concurrently havepositions in Organization for Advanced Studies (OAS) and participate in the management of OAS, so that
AIMR can keep the number of administrative staff members in return. This is the scheme designed by thehost institution to maintain the firm support for AIMR.

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List of Principal Investigators   If the number of principal investigators exceeds 10, add columns as appropriate.
   Give age as of 1 April 2020   For investigators who will not participate in the Center project at the time of submission of this Progress Plan, indicate
the time that their participation will start in the “Notes” column.
Name

Affiliation(Position title, department,
organization)

Academic degree,
Specialty(Notes)Enter "new" or"ongoing"

1

Center Director
Shin-ichi Orimo

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Ph.D. / Materials Engineeringand Chemistry

ongoing2

Deputy Center Director
Hiroshi Suito

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering /Mathematical Modeling andNumerical Simulation

ongoing

3 Tadafumi Adschiri

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering / Hybrid
Materials, Supercritical Fluid
Technology

ongoing

4 Gerrit Ernst-Wilhelm Bauer

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. rer. nat. /Spintronics

5 Hayato Chiba

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Ph. D. / Informatics

6 Shunsuke Fukami

Professor, Research Institute ofElectrical Communication (RIEC),
Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering / Spintronics (promoted to PI from

7 Tomoteru Fukumura

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering / Solid State
Chemistry

ongoing

8 Ayumi Hirano

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Science / Bio-devices

ongoing

9 Motoko Kotani

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University(Executive Vice President for Research of
Tohoku University)

Dr. of Science / Mathematics(Geometry)ongoing

10 Dmitri Valentinovich Louzguine

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University
cross-appointment: AIST-TohokuU Mathematics for Advanced
Materials Open Innovation Laboratory (MathAM-OIL)

Dr. of Engineering / Materials
Scienceongoing

11 Shigemi Mizukami

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering / Applied
Physics, Spintronics

ongoing

12 Hirotomo Nishihara

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering /Carbon-based
Nanomaterials

13 Seiji Samukawa

Professor, Institute of Fluid Science,
Tohoku University

Dr. of Engineering / NanoProcess Engineeringongoing

14 Takafumi Sato

Professor, AIMR, Tohoku University

Ph.D. / Physics

ongoing

15 Yuichi Ikuhara

Professor, School of Engineering,
Institute of Engineering Innovation,
The University of Tokyo

Dr. of Engineering / Ceramics,
Electron microscopy

ongoing

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newongoingongoingJunior PI in FY2019)

new

AIMR

Appendix 1

16 Eiji Saitoh

Professor, Department of Applied Physics, School Dr. of Engineering / Quantumof Engineering. The University of Tokyo
Nano Scienceongoing

17 Mingwei Chen

Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Whiting
School of Engineering

Dr. of Engineering / Materials
Scienceongoing

18 Yong P. Chen

Professor, Department of Physics and School ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue
University

Ph.D. / Condensed Matter
Physics, Nanotechnology

ongoing

19 Tomasz Dietl

Professor, Head of Laboratory of Cryogenic andSpintronic Research,Institute of Physics,
Polish Academy of Sciences

Ph.D./
Condensed Matter Physics(Theory)

ongoing

20 Alan Lindsay Greer

Professor, Department of Materials Science &Metallurgy,
University of Cambridge

Ph.D. / Metallurgy &Materials Scienceongoing

21 Chris Pickard

Professor, Department of Materials Science &Metallurgy,
University of Cambridge

Ph.D. / Materials Theory

ongoing

22 Thomas P. Russell

Ph.D. / Nano-Science
Professor, Department of Polymer Science andTechnology, University of Massachusetts Amherst Technology

ongoing

23 Alexander Shluger

Professor, Department of Physics andAstronomy,
University College London (UCL)

Ph.D. / Computational Materials
Science, Condensed Matter
Physics

ongoing

24 Qi-kun Xue

Professor, Department of Physics,
Tsinghua University

Ph.D. / Surface Scienceongoing*Percentage of time that the principal investigator will devote to his/her Academy center work vis-à-vis his/her total working hours.

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Appendix 3

Appendix 3

Diagram of Organizational Management System- Diagram separately the Center’s organizational management system and its position within the host institution in an easily understoodmanner. If you are planning to change your organization management system and/or its position within the host institution in or after FY
2020 compared to their description in Appendix 3-1 of Activities report, show the changes in the diagram.

Management System within AIMR

Position of AIMR in the Host Institution

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