activities and researcH news

OCtOBeR 2016 vOl. 26 nO. 5Spintronics Research network of Japan (Spin-RnJ)
and Centers for Spintronics Research network(CSRn) launched
MASAAKI TANAKACENTER FOR SPINTRONICS RESEARCH NETWORK (CSRN)GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
7-3-1 HONGO, BUNKYO-KU, TOKYO 113-8656, JAPANfig. 1: Kick-off Symposium for the Spintronics Research network of Japan (Spin-RnJ) and the Center for Spintronics
Research network (CSRn) at takeda Hall in the Hongo/Asano Campus of the university of tokyo on May 19, 2016.
http://www.cryst.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SpintronicsCenter/The spintronics research community in Japan submitted a proposal “Spintronics Research Infrastructureand Network” to the “Master Plan 2014, High-priority
Large-scale Research Plans” of the Science Council ofJapan (SCJ), and it was accepted in March 2014. In
total, 224 proposals were submitted to the SCJ, and27 were accepted. The 27 proposals were examined by
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT) of the Japanese Government, and
10 of them, including our proposal on spintronics, wereaccepted to the “Large-scale Scientific Research Projects – Roadmap 2014” in August 2014. This illustrates
that researchers and laboratories in Japan have maderemarkable contributions to the development of spintronics, and that spintronics is vitally important for theprogress of science, engineering, and related industries.
During this project, we established a Center for Spintronics Research Network (CSRN) in each of four baseuniversities: The University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, Osaka University, and Keio University. These haveallowed us to form a nationwide network connecting
various research institutions in Japan. Through this network, we aim to promote collaborations among researchgroups and institutions, strengthen competitive powerin research and industry for the development of technological innovations, and cultivate the next generationof young researchers and engineers. In April 2016, theSpintronics Research Network of Japan (Spin-RNJ) wasofficially launched, and the CSRN was established inthese four base universities.

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activities and researcH news

Bulletin

The project has four specific objectives: 1) create aworld-leading network connecting research laboratories
and institutions; 2) promote collaborations to develop
high-quality research, leading to technological innovations; 3) create new and interdisciplinary research fields
incorporating physics, applied physics, electronics, magnetics, materials, chemistry, and information sciences,and thereby improve the competitiveness of current
industries and create new industries; and 4) educate
and elevate the next generation of young researchersand engineers, who will be international leaders in theirfields.
fig. 2: leaders of the Centers for Spintronics Research network (CSRn) at thefour base universities: (From left) Professors Masafumi Shirai of tohokuuniversity, Hiroshi Katayama-Yoshida of Osaka university, Masaaki tanaka of theuniversity of tokyo, Hideo Ohno of tohoku university, and Kohei M. itoh of Keiouniversity.

The four base universities have the following general
responsibilities: The University of Tokyo focuses on spintronics materials and devices; Tohoku University focuseson spintronics devices and integration; Osaka University
focuses on design of spintronics materials and devices;and Keio University focuses on quantum spintronics.

A kick-off symposium for the Spin-RNJ and CSRN was
held at the University of Tokyo on May 19, 2016 (seeFig. 1 and http://www.cryst.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SpintronicsCenter/), and kick-off symposia for the CSRN at Tohoku
University and Osaka University were held on May 25,
2016, and June 10, 2016, respectively (Fig. 2). We coorganized the 9th International Conference on Physics
and Applications of Spin-Related Phenomena in Solids(PASPS-9), Kobe, August 8 - 11, 2016 (http://www.pasps9.
org). We are grateful to the many people who attended
these symposiums and conference and discussed an interesting range of issues.

Masaaki tanaka is the director of the Center for Spintronics Research network (CSRn), and a professor at the Department ofelectrical engineering & information Systems, Graduate School of engineering, the university of tokyo. He received B.e., M.e., andPh.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the university of tokyo, Japan, in 1984, 1986, and 1989, respectively. His research field
is electronic materials and device applications, in particular, spintronics materials, spin-related phenomena, and devices including
magnetic semiconductors, ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures and nanostructures, magnetic tunnel junctions, spintransistors and other devices. He has authored and coauthored over 250 scientific publications, and presented over 120 invited
talks at international conferences and meetings.

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