From Kyushu University to the world.
Introducing research activities that will bring us to the realization of a carbon-neutral society.

I2CNER:
10th Year Anniversary and Pathway to the Future
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Awards
Assist. Prof. Nguyen Dinh Hoa
2019 Masao Horiba Awards HORIBA, Ltd.
Assist. Prof. Nguyen Dinh Hoa from the Energy Analysis Division, received the Masao Horiba Awards 2019. The
purpose of this award is to encourage and recognize scientists and engineers relatively early in their careers who areachieving distinguished results in the field of analytical science and technology.
The target technical field of 2019 is advanced analytical and measurement technologies to maximize theperformance of electric power and battery usage for efficient control systems. The field for the award is decided every
year with a focus on the principles and fundamental technologies fostered by HORIBA, Ltd.

ProfessorAssoc. Prof.

Yasuyuki Takata

Motonori Watanabe

ATPC Significant ContributionAward

The Young Scientists’ Prize

12th Asian ThermophysicalProperties Conference (ATPC2019)
Professor Yasuyuki Takata (Thermal Science and Engineering Division),received the ATPC Significant Contribution Award at the 12th Asian
Thermophysical Properties Conference (ATPC 2019), which was held in
Xi'an, China from October 2-6, 2019.
The purpose of this award is to honor a professional scientist on
thermophysical properties who has made significant contributions toAsian Thermophysical Properties Research and been recognized by theacademia.

The Minister of Education,Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology
Assoc. Prof. Motonori Watanabe (Molecular Photoconversion Devices
Division) received the Young Scientists’ Prize by the Minister ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. Hewas awarded the prize for “Research of water splitting usingorganic/inorganic hybrid photocatalysts”. Every year the Minister honors
those who have made outstanding contributions in research andenhancement of understanding in science and technology.

Assist. Prof.

Assoc. Prof.

Biao Shen

Elif Ertekin

Outstanding Paper Award

Emerging Leader Award

14 International Conference on
Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics,and Thermodynamics

The Society of WomenEngineersthAssist. Prof. Biao Shen, Mr. Tomosuke
Mine, Dr. Sumitomo Hidaka (Post-doctoral
Research Associate), Prof. Koji Takahashi, Prof. Yasuyuki Takata (ThermalScience and Engineering Division), and their research group have been
awarded the Outstanding Paper Award at the 14th International
Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics in
Wicklow, Ireland.
The purpose of this conference is to provide researchers withopportunities to present the results of their research in the field of heattransfer, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics.

Assoc. Prof. Elif Ertekin from the Molecular Photoconversion Devices
Division, has been selected to receive Emerging Leader Award from theSociety of Women Engineers (SWE).
The award honors individuals who have been actively engaged in anengineering or technology profession and have demonstrated
outstanding leadership skills as an individual resulting in significant
accomplishments.
Ertekin was one of 10 women from across the U.S. selected to receive
the competitive award. She was recognized for her leadership ininterdisciplinary research, her exceptional teaching and mentoring of thenext generation of engineers.

Editor’s Note
I²CNER holds a variety of events.
For details, please see: ➡ http://i2cner.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/

I2CNER

SearchThis issue is the final issue of I2CNER’s PR magazine. Thank you very much for supporting
I2CNER over the last 10 years. We hope to continue to research and develop technologies
for carbon neutral energy solutions. Please visit our homepage, Facebook or other SNS for
further information. We are open to any feedback you may wish to share. Thank you.

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Hello! I2CNER

Hello! I2CNER vol.23 March 2020
[Published by] International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research（ I²CNER）
I²CNER Administrative Office, 744, Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City
Fukuoka Prefecture, 819-0395 (Kyushu University Ito Campus)+81-(0)92-802-6935+81-(0)92-802-6939
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I2CNER Event Reports

Local School Students Visiting I CNER
2Local Junior High School Students visited I2CNER asa part of a local government project, Itoshima Cityand Fukuoka Prefecture, promoting local projects tostudents.
Two junior high schools in Itoshima attended alecture class presented by researchers at I2CNER.
Prof. Chapman gave a talk about energy systems in
the local area and Japan. He spoke in fluent
Japanese which captured the students’ attention
with his talk. The other students learned abouthydrogen energy society through an experimentdemonstration on how hydrogen can be made by aphotocatalytic process. The students paid attention
and learned about the exciting scientific world of
Photocatalytic through the demonstration.

2019.9.

Assoc. Prof. Watanabe holding two chemicals and giving a demonstration to the students

Assoc. Prof. Chapman asking a question to the students

Energy Week 2020
Kyushu University Energy Week 2020 was held onJanuary 27th – 31st 2020, with the theme: “EnergyIntelligence Beyond Borders: Sharing Sustainable
Energy Visions.”
The Energy Week event attracts people fromacademia, industry, and government offices both
inside and outside of Japan, to discuss and share theirresearch. I2CNER and the Research Center for
Hydrogen Industrial Use and Storage (HYDROGENIUS)
Joint Research Symposium, and the I2CNER andInstitute of Math for Industry (IMI) Joint International
Workshop, were held respectively on January 30th and31st, as part of the Energy Week. During theworkshops, there were a lot of questions anddiscussions that showed the enthusiasm fromparticipants, academics, and researchers frominstitutions and industries across Europe, Asia, U.S.,and Japan.

2020.1.

Discussion during the Applied Math for Energy workshop

International Workshop at Catalytic Materials Transformations Division

Hello! I2CNER

2I2CNER: 10th Year Anniversary andPathway to the FutureThis year marks the 10th anniversary of I2CNER as a center which exemplifies the visionof the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) of the government ofJapan. I2CNER maintains a premier international reputation, infrastructure, research
productivity and quality, and an open research platform for the international community
to engage in and tackle the energy challenge of the 21st century. The high-impact
transformational reforms, being instituted by I2CNER’s strategy for furthering
technology-driven research, is positioning KU as a world-wide leader.
Since its inception in 2010, I2CNER has increased diversity, provided a new culture foryoung scientists to thrive independently, formed many transdisciplinary teams to help its
research culture break out of “groupthink,” fostered collaborations around the world, andgenerated recognized world-class research results. In fact, these results truly bear themark of I2CNER because they could not have been accomplished outside the frameworkof the I2CNER project. Developing its brand identity on energy engineering, I2CNER has
I2CNER Building circa 2013,
continuously engaged industrial partners through open innovation and technology
during the early stage of Ito-campus consolidationtransfer.
I2CNER’s mission and accomplishments are directly in line with Japan’s vision for a robust energy future that optimizes energy resources in concert withJapan’s overarching energy vision: energy security, economic efficiency, and environmental protection without compromising safety (3E+S).
Through its mission-driven basic research, the Center has defined and produced the development of the science to dramatically reduce Japan’s CO2emissions while strengthening Japan’s energy security. I2CNER’s many accomplishments have been built on the development and growth of extremely
strong research teams between KU and at the Satellite Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Vision and Strategies

I2CNER’s vision is to contribute to the creation of a carbon-neutralsociety (CNS) through basic research underlying technology that willaddress the energy challenge for Japan and the world, and establish amodel international academic environment for the 21st century, andestablish a model international academic environment for the 21stcentury.
In pursuing our mission, we consider two major principles, efficiency
increase (EI) in energy conversion and energy use, and lowering thecarbon intensity (LCI) of fuel and electricity to adopt and develop futuretechnologies. To carry out its mission, I2CNER’s research is driven bywell-defined milestones and targets that are identified in roadmaps of
the underlying technologies.

Advancing Research of the Highest Global Level
Evidence of I2CNER’s international stature and relevance can be seen
in its 2816 publications since inception with a total number of 47147
citations and an h-index of 88 which is on par or better than the h-index

3Hello! I2CNERof peer institutes. Our researchers have joint publications withresearchers from 573 institutions around the world, and 343
internationally recognized researchers visited I2CNER for scientificinteraction and exchange.
The Institute’s researchers are globally engaged and have been
responsible for organizing, co-organizing, or serving on the scientificcommittees of 207 international conferences, 278 international
conference sessions/symposia or workshops, and 68 I2CNER
international workshops. In addition, I2CNER researchers have received a
total of 310 national and international awards from various professionalsocieties and institutions around the world.

Generating Fused Disciplines
I2CNER provides unique opportunities for bottom-up research, giving
researchers opportunities to create and establish new research
directions. In particular, young researchers have formed an importantpart of I2CNER. In order to foster advance interdisciplinary research,
applied math and economics are integrated into I2CNER’s research
portfolio. The "Applied Math and Economics for Energy” is now a newinterdisciplinary research direction, and will be an important componentof I2CNER.

I2CNER’s annual symposia are used as platforms to explore fusion ofdisciplines and come up with action plans for nurturing new
cross-cutting interdisciplinary research directions and guiding new
faculty hires. By way of example, major outcomes of the 2016 and 2017
symposia is that they helped in the respective establishment ofcomputational science and applied math as integral components ofI2CNER’s research portfolio.
The disparate nature of the disciplines involved in the I2CNER research
fields facilitates interdisciplinary work through collaborations acrossdivision boundaries. By necessity the research teams are composed ofscientists and engineers from disparate disciplines including chemistry,
physics, materials science, mechanics, geoscience, biomimetics, appliedmath, economics, and social sciences, and the research addresses
phenomena that span many decades in spatial and temporal scales.
I2CNER’s roadmap and research portfolio updates are also informed by
the Institute’s scientific exchanges with a stellar list of distinguishedscientists from 25 partnering institutions across the globe, including theUniversity of California, Berkeley; the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
MIT; the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California,Irvine; the State of California Air Resources Board (CARB) in the US;
Imperial College, London in the UK; and the University of Göttingen inGermany.

Realizing an International Research Environment
The environment at I2CNER provides a rich platform to pursue
transformative research in non-traditional and highly multi-disciplinary
environments, bringing together researchers from domestic andinternational settings to address issues critical to Japan’s transition to acarbon neutral society.

I2CNER has hosted 40 international symposia; held 143 seminars in
the Institute Interest Seminar Series (IISS) with 256 speakers of which
158 were non-Japanese; 157 seminars in the I2CNER Seminar Series
with 161 total speakers of which 105 were non-Japanese.
As part of its commitment to fostering globally-aware researchers
starting from the undergraduate level, I2CNER sends approximately 6undergraduate students from Kyushu University to carry out research in
the laboratories at the University of Illinois on an annual basis. TheInstitute also hosts 6 undergraduate students from the US (Illinois,Northwestern, and the University of California, Berkeley) who participate
in summer research programs in I2CNER laboratories.
I2CNER’s mission is enhanced by its Satellite Center at the Universityof Illinois, which serves to advance an impressive number ofcollaborations across the USA, including top-tier US universities,
prestigious national laboratories, and government agencies. In addition,
the Illinois Satellite is enabling Kyushu University to execute its reformand revitalization program for the internationalization of its education andresearch missions.

Feeding Research Outcomes Back Into Society
The relevance of the I2CNER research efforts and objectives toenabling the green innovation initiative of the government of Japan isdemonstrated by the large number of collaborative projects in which its
researchers are involved with industry. Total 53 cases of technology
transfer have been accomplished. Currently, more than 30 industries
have been involved in the joint research with I2CNER, and over 20
projects are under planning. Since inception, I2CNER has filed for 239patents and was granted 69 patents.

Extension PlanIn FY 2017, MEXT established the new WPI Academy to take the vanguard ininternationalizing and further renovating Japan’s research environment, making it
place that expands and accelerates the international circulation of the world’s
best brains. The WPI centers that have achieved “world-premier status” will be theinitial members of the WPI Academy. I2CNER has been recognized as a world
leader in terms of achievements in research standards and operation of the centerfor 10 years, and will begin its activities as a WPI Academy from FY2020.
I2CNER will streamline its research portfolio by reshaping its strongest research
themes. The three streamlined thematic research clusters or ‘Thrusts’ will be 1)
Advanced Energy Materials, 2) Advanced Energy Conversion Systems, and 3)
Multiscale Science and Engineering for Energy and the Environment. This
structure allows us to capture our most relevant existing capabilities and to2018: Completion of Ito-Campus consolidation
organize them for the best future impact. It also provides an efficient mechanism
for top international and Japanese researchers to work interactively to accomplish common goals which cut across disciplines.
By leveraging the achievements of international collaborative research, we will promote a wide range of fusion and joint research on energy research invarious fields such as social science, economics, law, and politics, as well as education jointly with "Q-PIT" (Kyushu University Platform ofInter/Transdisciplinary Energy Research) .
While further enhancing our identity through global exchange and partnerships, I2CNER aims to contribute significantly to the realization of acarbon-neutral society through joint research and technology transfer with industry.
Hello! I2CNER

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