LETTERI NST I T U TE FOR A DVA NCED R ESE A RCHMarch 2020 Vol. 18

Special Interview

Investigating the laws of physics that governed
the universe right after the Big Bang.
―― Toru IIJIMA

Research Highlights

Exploring social changes and reconsidering‘‘development’’ based on fieldwork in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia / Ai SUGIE
Exploring Triggers of Solar Eruptions from Satellite Observations / Yumi BAMBA
Non-equilibrium phenomena in ultracold quantum gases / Kazuya FUJIMOTO
The secret life of plants − Diving deep inside the f lower − / Yoko MIZUTA
Surviving between East and West:An exiled Byzantine Empire in the thirteenth-century Eurasian context / Koji MURATA
Gentle algebras and surface combinatorics / Aaron CHAN
ELF and VLF magnetospheric plasma waves:
How to better understand the near-Earth environment / Claudia MARTINEZ-CALDERON
Elastic and inelastic deformation in the crustfrom geodetic observations / Angela MENESES-GUTIERREZ

Toward a fruitful dialogue on interdisciplinarity
and academic collaboration
For a long time, the age of majority in Japan had been set at 20 by the Civil Code. Recently,
however, the Japanese government decided to lower it to 18. Since the Institute for Advanced Researchat Nagoya University was established in 2002, it will now enter adulthood in 2020 in accordance withthis new law. Needless to say, becoming an adult means taking on greater responsibility in pursuing thefundamental objectives of the institute not only within Nagoya University but also in wider academia
around the world.
The primary mission of Nagoya IAR since its establishment has been to identify distinguishedscholars of our university worthy of international recognition, and to further support their research toenable them to demonstrate their academic excellence to the world. At the same time, we have been
hosting IAR lectures and seminars, most notably the Nagoya University Lectures, delivered by
outstanding scholars, to whom the president of Nagoya University awarded special lectureship, for the
purpose of sharing the highest academic accomplishments with society at large. Last year, it was ourgreat honor to hold the Nagoya University Lecture with Dr. Masanori Aoyagi as the awardee, aneminent Roman archaeologist who has been working in Italy for almost half a century. Furthermore,encouraging early-career researchers through interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming a key missionof our institute. To this end, we are responsible for the implementation of the Young Leaders
Cultivation (YLC) Program, appointing around eight prominent early-career researchers of various
fields every year as designated assistant professors in five-year terms. In 2020, nine highly promising
young researches will join this program through a rigorous selection process.
One of the most important duties of the director of Nagoya IAR is to serve as a member of thesteering committee of the international consortium of UBIAS (University-Based Institutes for
Advanced Study). The members of UBIAS are expected to hold joint activities on a certain topic called“Topic of the Year.” The 2020 Topic of the Year is “Dialogue,” which we have proposed together with
the Nanjing IAS. We sincerely hope that “Dialogue” may further strengthen the partnerships among the
UBIAS members and with other institutes of leading research universities in order to promote future
academic advancement.

Yoshi SUTO
Director, Institute for Advanced Research

Director

SUTO, Yoshiyuki

18March 2020

LETTERI N S T I T U T E F O R A DVA N C E D R E S E A RC H

CON TEN TS

03

Special interview
Investigating the laws of physics that governed
the universe right after the Big Bang.
Toru IIJIMA

07

Research Highlights
Exploring social changes and reconsidering‘‘development’’ based on fieldwork in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia
Ai SUGIE
Exploring Triggers of Solar Eruptions from Satellite Observations
Yumi BAMBA
Non-equilibrium phenomena in ultracold quantum gases
Kazuya FUJIMOTO
The secret life of plants ‒ Diving deep inside the flower ‒Yoko MIZUTA
Surviving between East and West:An exiled Byzantine Empire in the thirteenth-century Eurasian context
Koji MURATA
Gentle algebras and surface combinatorics
Aaron CHAN
ELF and VLF magnetospheric plasma waves:
How to better understand the near-Earth environment
Claudia MARTINEZ-CALDERON
Elastic and inelastic deformation in the crust from geodetic observations
Angela MENESES-GUTIERREZ

23

IAR People

35

IAR Information

Cover Picture :Multicolor two-photon imaging of Arabidopsis pistils.
(Photograph by Yoko Mizuta, YLC assistant professor. See page 13.)

Special
Interview

Toru
IijimaDr. Iijima was born in 1964 in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
He is a professor at the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI), Nagoya University.
He also serves as professor at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University. As a particle physicist and leader ofexperiments with accelerators, Dr. Iijima is working to elucidate the origin of matter and the origin of the universe. He
graduated from the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University in 1987 and received his doctorate (in science) from the university in
1995. He became a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 1992, an Assistant at KEK in 1994,
and an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University in 2002, before taking on his current positionsin 2010. Since June 2019, Dr. Iijima has been the spokesperson for the Belle II experiment with the SuperKEKB accelerator.

Investigating the laws of physics that governed
the universe right after the Big Bang.
̶̶ W hen did you become interested inelementary particle physics?
IIJIMA: Sometime in high school. At first, I did not likestudying physics. I remember well that I failed my midterm
exam in the first term of my first year in high school (laughs). I
preferred genetics of biology. I was deeply impressed by the factthat heredity was explainable at the level of molecules, such as
DNA. However, I changed my mind after studying Newton’s
law in high school mechanics class. Mechanics explains manythings from free fall, such as the fall of an object from a tree,
and a parabolic motion, to astrological phenomena. With
physics, you can even “predict” things. I found physics interesting

03 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

because it can express a phenomenon in the world with a single
formula.
I think it was in my third year in high school, I learned
about a research in particle physics when I read a newspaper
article. It said that CERN (European Organization for Nuclear
Research), an accelerator facility in Europe, had discovered atheoretically predicted particle called the “weak bosons”, bycolliding proton and antiproton beams in an accelerator. I was
surprised to learn that CERN had dug a huge tunnel with adiameter of 2km and a circumference of 7km to make theaccelerator to collide the particles with each other, and that the
new particles had been discovered as predicted. I thought boththe theory and the experiment were wonderful.

̶̶ I hear that you were inspired by Dr. Yukawa
and Dr. Tomonaga, two legendary theoreticalparticle physicists at Kyoto University, to enter
the university.
IIJIMA: Yes. However, theoretical particle physics labs were
harder to join than any other physics lab at Kyoto University.
Some students at the university were so smart that I thought
theoretical physics would be above me. I saw some experimentdevices during a tour of accelerator laboratories, and I felt I was
better suited for working on experiments than on theories. That
is why I joined a lab that focused on experiments. I also liked
messing around with machines quite a bit.
In my undergraduate years, I belonged to a yacht club at
the university and didn’t study much. So I didn’t do well in the
postgraduate exam. I was certain I had failed it, but I hadn’t. I
g uess I was admitted for my perseverance and potential(laughs). In the autumn of my first year of the master’s program,I joined the project of an experiment to find the “H-dibaryon”,
an unknown particle made of six quarks.

̶̶ There are six types of quarks, aren’t there?
IIJIMA: That’s right. [See diagram] H-Dibaryon is predicted to bea particle made of six quarks: u, u, d, d, s, and s. I joined
experiments for finding this particle at the KEK (High Energy
Accelerator Research Organization) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture,
Japan, and the BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratory) in the U.S.
Both KEK and BNL arranged accommodations for me on thepremises. From around my second year of the master’s program to
my third year of the doctoral program, I spent my entire time
performing experiments. It was incredible fun. In the end we failed
to find the H-Dibarion, but in retrospect, my experience in thosedays of devoting myself to experiments meant a lot to me. I acquired
a wide range of ideas and techniques, got to know many researchers,
and learned at a deep level how to move my research forward.
When I finished writing my doctoral thesis, construction of
the B Factory for the so-called Belle experiment was about tobegin at KEK back in Japan. The experiment was intended tomeasure the CP violation predicted by the Kobayashi-Maskawa
theory and to check whether or not the prediction was correct. I
had an opportunity to participate in the new project as an
assistant professor hired by KEK.

Standard Model of Particle Physics. “Elementary particles make up the Universe”

̶̶ What were you responsible for?
IIJIMA: In the Belle experiment, I investigated the difference
between particles called “B mesons” and their antiparticles
called “anti-B mesons” in the way in which they decay. B mesons
contain the second heaviest quark, called “bottom quark (b).”When B mesons decay, they convert into several much lighter
particles. These light particles travel at almost the speed of lightinto the detector. We developed a Cherenkov detector, whichmeasures such slight difference in speed.
Basically, in particle physics experiments, only an
accelerator is operated by the host laboratory. Then, researchersdevelop experimental devices and bring them into the site. If
you want to gain the world’s first results in physics experiments,
you need to develop detectors of the highest performance ever.
This is a challenge, but also a real pleasure for experimental
scientists like me. We developed a rather unusual material called“silica aerogel” with a manufacturer, and had a photomultipliertube manufacturer build optical sensors. It took us about four
years to develop this Cherenkov detector.

̶̶ What is interesting about studying particle
physics?
IIJIMA: The study of particle physics involves thinking
through the most basic elements that make up the universe andwhat rules they follow. That means investigating the laws thatgoverned the universe right after the Big Bang , 13.8 billion
years ago in the history of the universe. Isn’t it exciting to prove
the origin of all creation, dating back to 13.8 billion years ago,
in an experiment today with an accelerator on the earth?
Observation of the CP violation in the experiment means
verification of the theory that governed the universe right after
the Big Bang. When we actually measured and proved theviolation in the B Factory experiment, I was absolutely thrilled.
To borrow someone’s phrase, I felt like I was touching the handof God.

BelleII Detector

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 04̶̶ In those days, the news was reported as a great
achievement, and I felt excited like many otherpeople. After the B Factory experiment, how did theresearch go?
IIJIMA: Although we managed to prove the Kobayashi-Maskawa
theory, a fundamental mystery still remains: why is the universe
made up of matter alone? Why is there no antimatter in theuniverse? The Kobayashi-Maskawa theory is not sufficient to
explain the reason why. You need a new theory that goes beyond
the Standard Model.
The new theory concerns new elementary particles that are
still unveiled. Which means, discovering new particles is a current
major goal of particle physics. If you conduct an experiment withan even higher beam intensity, you are likely to discoversomething that deviates from the prediction made by theStandard Model (the Kobayashi-Maskawa theory).

̶̶ That is, the Belle II experiment being
conducted with the Super KEKB accelerator,
am I correct?
IIJIMA: That’s right. I have been involved in its construction.
This year, we finally started the experiment on a full scale. Last
June, I was appointed spokesperson (representative of thecollaborative experiment team). Although we are conducting theexperiment at KEK, the experiment team is independent from
KEK and comprises researchers from all over the world: about
150 from the U.S., 400 from Europe, 210 from Asia, and 160
from Japan. Currently, a total of about 980 researchers from 118
research institutions in 26 countries and regions are participatingin the project. We monitor the experiment in real time, give
instructions to researchers around the world, and discuss withthem. If something concerns us, we discuss it via internet, using
tools like Skype.

experiment. To increase the frequency of electron-positron
collisions, we also reduced the width of the colliding beam fromabout 100μm to tens of nanometers. In the beam, bunches madeof about 10 billion electrons and positrons intersect with eachother. Most of the electrons and positrons slip without being hit,
but if you narrow the beam, the density increases and they are hit
more easily.
The work of detector fabrication was divided among the
researchers participating in the experiment. Our lab was
responsible for fabricating a detector that measures the speed ofparticles, called the “TOP counter.” For accurate measurement of
the speed of particles, we ensured higher time resolution and dataprocessing capacity than those of conventional detectors. We
worked with a manufacturer to develop a microchannel plate
photomultiplier tube, which boasts a time resolution highenough to detect light traveling a distance of 1.2cm. The tube has
area of 2.5 × 2.5cm2, and we place 512 of them in the detector.
This photomultiplier tube can measure one photon. It has such ahigh sensitivity that, if you turn on a flashlight on the moon’s
surface, the light that reaches the earth can be measured by the
microchannel plate. This high-sensitivity measurement is made ata high-enough resolution to detect light traveling a distance of
1.2cm. You don’t need this in your everyday life, but don’t you
think this is amazing?

̶̶ It sure is amazing. Have you alreadyachieved any results in the Belle II experiment?
IIJIMA : The experiment has three phases : accelerator
commissioning, a preliminary collision experiment, and thefull-scale start. The third phase beg an in March 2019.
Accelerators are not the type of device that instantly delivers agood performance when you press a button. You need to makefine adjustments repeatedly to the accelerator to improve its
p erformance. S o it ta kes over t wo years to exce e d theperformance level of the accelerator in the B Factory.

̶̶ Is there any theory you would like to provein this Belle II experiment?

̶̶ How ingenious is the equipment for the
Belle II experiment?
IIJIMA : We proposed to raise the beam intensity of theaccelerator to 40 times higher than that for the B Factory

05 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

IIJIMA: This time, I would like to form a new physical theory
based on the results of this experiment, rather than proving any
particular theory. The Kobayashi-Maskawa theory has been
proved, and the Higgs boson has been discovered. The time forexperiments to prove theories is over. Now we are moving on to
the next step: to discover new phenomena based on the resultsof experiments. This is the time when we experimental scientists
should give it all we have.
As I just mentioned, there are things that cannot be
explained by the Standard Model. To give a specific example,
there is something called “dark matter.” The rotation speed of
the galaxy is inconsistent with the amount of detectable mass,and there must be more mass. Dark matter is called dark

Special Interview | Toru IIJIM A

because it is unobservable. Dark matter is considered anotherkind of elementary particle, but in the Standard Model, there isno particle that can be interpreted as dark matter. I would liketo discover new particles and also close in on the mystery ofdark matter.

̶̶ It seems like you are going to obtain
exciting results. However, isn’t it tough to leadalmost 1,000 people in the team and move theresearch forward?
IIJIMA: We develop detectors, proceed with the experiment onschedule, collect data, and organize it into research papers. We
need a variety of skills to do such things, but the same is true forany other field of study, isn’t it? What is peculiar about us is that
we comprise many researchers who share the same goal, who get
together to form a team and work on a single project together
and encourage each other. In other fields of study, many teams
aiming at the same goal compete with each other. When it comesto particle physics, experiments are so large in scale that the sheer
cost of competition among many teams would be global in scale.
Instead, researchers get together and discuss equipment,
measurement methods, and data analysis. We sometimes competeand select the best choice.
In this environment, I think consensus is important. What
are the biggest problems in proceeding with the project? What
are the solutions to these? We share issues and work together toresolve them. Researchers think scientifically. So, as long as they
discuss in a fair manner, they all accept whatever conclusion they
arrive at. This is because they engage in research out of sheer
desire for discovery.

̶̶ What do you think of the ILC (International
Linear Collider), which is planned to be built in
Iwate Prefecture, Japan?
IIJIMA: There are two ways to achieve the next breakthrough inparticle physics: to directly create new heavy particles bycolliding particles with high energ y, or to measure particles
accurately. While the Belle II experiment examines the effect of
new particles on the bottom quark and the tau lepton, the ILC
targets the Higgs boson. In other words, the ILC will be
intended to measure the properties and reactions of the Higgs
boson accurately. The ILC is a significant project thatelementary particle researchers would definitely like to get
involved in.
I expect that the ILC will also offer economic benefits tothe area in Iwate Prefecture, where the equipment is planned tobe constructed. Infrastructure and a community will be built for
researchers coming from overseas to live there. The project will
be funded by the government. So it is important to earn proper
understanding from the public, but sufficient understanding has
not yet been obtained. It is necessary to make efforts to convince

researchers in other fields and the public of the importance of
this project.

̶̶ To conclude, could you give a brief message
to young people?
IIJIMA: The best part of scientific research is that you canchange people’s common perceptions. Looking back, there havebeen some moments of dramatic progress in people’s common
perceptions. An old example is the shift from the geocentric
theory to the heliocentric theory.
People often ask me how particle physics is useful. It does
not show immediate utility. However, if you only conductedscientific studies to make your life easier tomorrow, humansociety would not have made such great progress, don’t you
think? The foundations for the invention of semiconductor andcomputers can be traced back to the discovery of electrons andalso there were achievements of quantum mechanics. Some
scientific studies that do not show immediate utility may turn out
to improve our standard of living many years into the future.
I believe that efforts to plan and conduct basic science
experiments such as elementary particles also develop the abilities
of researchers. You can live your daily life just fine without atechnology that can detect 1 cm of light travel. Still, I believe that
this technology is essential for cutting-edge scientific researchand has enhanced the abilities of humans who have striven to
make the technolog y a reality. Sometime in the future, thetechnology will be of some practical use.
So, I would like you young people to keep yourselves open
to anything that may arouse your curiosity. Then, once you findsome research subject interesting, do not be dissuaded by the
temporary trends of the world or whether or not the subject is ofpractical use. Just dive to the bottom of the subject.

Inter view with Dr. Iijima was done by Nagoya IAR faculties and C. Ashihara(Chunichi Shimbun Co., Ltd). This interview article was written by C. Ashihara andtranslated to English under the responsibility of Nagoya IAR.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 06

Research Highlights _ 01

Exploring social changes and reconsidering‘‘development’’ based on fieldwork in
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia

Conducting fieldwork in rural Bangladesh in the rainy season

Ai SUGIE
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Graduate School of Environmental Studies / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: sugie.ai@b.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

have conducted fieldwork in rural Bangladesh since 2007, and explored the social changes and current situations of Bangladeshi village society. Here I
would like to introduce two research projects of mine. i) One of my research projects seeks to explore the mechanism of socio-spatial and inner spiritualIslamization in rural Bangladesh. I focus on Bangladeshi migrants and pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, and examine how their living experiences in Saudi Arabia affect thereligious knowledge and practice of the Bangladeshi migrants and how their home communities exert an influence on their religious discipline in that country. ii)
Another research project attempts to reveal the negative impacts of industrialization and existing rural development programs on local society, and evaluate local
and indigenous technical knowledge in rural Bangladesh. This project critically reconsiders the concept and practice of “development,” and seeks the possibility ofpluralism in economics and alternative development there.

I

BANGLADESHI MIGRANTS IN SAUDI ARABIA AND
TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS OF ISLAMIC REVIVALThis study explores the socio-economic backgrounds of Bangladeshi
migrants (including migrant workers and pilgrims) in Makkha (Mecca), andexamines the impacts they have on the politico-economic and socio-cultural
spheres in their home communities in Bangladesh.
I have conducted fieldwork in several villages in Tangail district inBangladesh since 2007. I have traced the process of Islamization in terms of

07 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

landscape and population in the study area from the early 20th century to
the present (Sugie, 2014, 2017). During this time, I have observed that
religious activities such as the construction and maintenance of mosques,
and the organization of Islamic conferences have become increasingly
prosperous even while the other functions of local communities have been
declining (Sugie, 2017). Local Muslim elites have sought to preach about
prayer and fasting in their communities. Moreover, the tendency to regard
playing musical instruments and saint worship as forbidden in Islam has

Ai SUGIE
arisen recently not only the villages the villages in Tangail district but also inother parts of the country (Sugie, 2016). Such tendencies have been widelyreported and have spread among Muslim communities worldwide since the18th century; they have been reinforced in recent Islamic revival movementsfrom the latter half of the 1970s. However, it is not clear how an Islamizationthat orientates people to be ‘‘more Islamic’’ has been brought to and spreadin rural Bangladesh.
Previous South Asian studies have stated that such a spiritual, inner
Islamization at the local and national levels has been brought about by thehistorical and colonial construction of religious differences on thesubcontinent. Although such aspects of Islamization could be seen in the
exclusive religious identity and practice among local people (e.g., Sugie,
2016), how the recent tendency of Islamization has been brought to andspread in rural Bangladesh needs to be examined in terms of its relationshipand/or commonality with worldwide Islamic revivalism. To deal with theseissues, Sugie (2019) provides a model of Islamization using the concept of“Islamic locale,” and examines the mechanisms of Islamization that are
specific to Bangladesh and its connections, as well as the similarities with anddifferences from Islamic revivalism worldwide. This study found thatsignificant triggers of the spread of Islamic knowledge are the achievement ofa certain degree of economic status, modern Islamic education, and work by
Islamic intellectuals including those who have returned from Saudi Arabia.
In this study, Bangladeshi villages are considered a social space, which iscomposed of a transnational network connecting regions and the flow ofpeople, things and knowledge. In this flow, I focus on Bangladeshi migrant
workers and pilgrims in Middle Eastern countries; among them, I selected
Saudi Arabia based on statistical data on Bangladeshi migrant workers andthe abovementioned research results (Sug ie, 2019). Althoug h thecontribution of overseas migrants to the individual household and the
Bangladeshi national economy has received considerable attention, thecultural and social impacts of migrants on Bangladeshi society cannot beignored because there are a huge number of migrants in the Gulf States,
particularly Saudi Arabia, who are from various classes and areas. However,
little attention has been paid to their cultural and social impacts except by a
few studies. Moreover, due to very limited access to Saudi Arabia, previous
studies on overseas migrants in the country have been based only on statistics
or interviews of those who have returned to their home countries. Amongthe cities of Saudi Arabia, Makkha is the most important religious site forMuslims. However, the current situation of migrants in the city has not been
unveiled, because it is a prohibited area for non-Muslims. In my fieldwork, I
found that at least 700 Bangladeshi migrant households were living in aconcentrated area near the Halam Mosque in Makkha, and that they made asignificant contribution to religious activities in the city as well as in theirhometowns in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study seeks to examine their roles
and positions in the city, their hometowns, and transnational networks ofIslamic revival. This study is a pioneer work on Islamic revivalism based on
intensive fieldwork in Makkha.

Figure 1. The Kaaba in Halam Mosque in Makkha

PLUR ALISM IN ECONOMIC S AND ALTERNATIVEDEVELOPMENT
Academic discussions and social movements that seek alternative or
pluralistic economic systems, such as a solidarity economy or a community
e conomy, have increasing ly g aine d momentum since the e vils ofneoliberalism have been unveiled. Based on the theory of Karl Polanyi, thebasic thought and practice of this movement is to re-embed the economy
i n t o s o c i e t y a n d n a t ur e . Ho w e v e r, i t i s b r o a d l y b e l i e v e d t h a t
foreign-capital-led and export-oriented industrialization is the only way forthe rapid and successful economic development of developing countries suchas Bangladesh. Moreover, a microcredit-oriented development scheme hasadvanced a neoliberal social process and restructuring at both the macro andmicro levels, rather than pluralizing the market-oriented economic system(Sugie, 2019, forthcoming). Is there no alternative to a dependence on the
global market economy and financialization that expects prosperity to trickle
down from wealthy capitalists at the expense of local solidarity and thenatural environment?
Rural Bang ladesh features indigenous social customs such as
redistribution of wealth in the form of “begging” and alms-giving (Sugie,
2013) and resource use that is eco-friendly and favorable to the poor,
although these practices have been marginalized in the market-oriented
economic system. By exploring and evaluating these practices, this study
seeks and discusses the possibility of a pluralistic economic system and analternative way of development, where reciprocity and solidarity amongpeople as well as between people and nature are prioritized over market
economy success.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the residents of the Bangladeshi villages and
Makkha, which I visited during my fieldwork, for their warm cooperation. My work was
supported by the JSPS under Grant Number 16J05363.

References[1] Sugie, A., “Solidarity economy versus neoliberalism?: Microcredit in rural
Bangladesh,” Journal of Business and Economics 10 (7), (forthcoming)[2] Sugie, A., “Disembedding Islamic locales: the spread and deepening of Islamic
knowledge in rural Bangladesh,” Journal of Urban and Regional Studies on Contemporary
India 5 (2), 1–21 (2019)[3] Sugie, A., “Deconstructing financial inclusion and exclusion in development
discourse: case studies of microfinance operations in rural Bangladesh,” in Leimgruber,
W. & Chang, C. D. eds., Perspectives on geographical marginality Volume 4: Rural areas
between regional needs and global challenges. Springer, 97–119 (2019)[4] Sugie, A., “Reconsidering rural communities in Bangladesh through Muslim groups
experiencing discrimination: a case of villages in the South area of Tangail district,”
Japanese Journal of Human Geography 69, 191–211 (2017) [in Japanese][5] Sugie, A., “Persistence and change in occupational groups among Muslims in rural
Bangladesh: a case study of Sanaidar jati in Tangail district,” International Journal ofSouth Asian Studies 8, 73–102 (2016)[6] Sugie, A., “Changes in Hindu society in rural Bangladesh: a case study of village B in
Tangail district,” Japanese Journal of Human Geography 66, 307–329 (2014) [inJapanese][7] Sugie, A., “The practice and activities of ‘beggars’ in rural areas of Bangladesh,”
Geographical Review of Japan 83, 115–134 (2013) [in Japanese]

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 08

Research Highlights _ 02

Exploring Triggers of Solar Eruptions
from Satellite Observations

A solar eruption observed by NASA’s satellite “Solar Dynamics Observatory”

Yumi BAMBA
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: y-bamba@nagoya-u.jp

he Sun, on which depends the very existence of life on the Earth, sometimes threatens human activities due to disturbance of the space environment aroundT the Earth by eruptive phenomena such as storms. "Space weather forecasts," which predict storms in space caused by solar activity, are vital for modern

society developing high-tech infrastructures and for human advancement into space. Thus, it is necessary to understand the physical process of solar eruptions andto predict when and where solar eruptions will occur, and how large they will be. In our study, we discovered the characteristic magnetic field structures that trigger
solar eruptions and that have never previously been discovered. We have also discussed some precursory phenomena of solar eruptions. From the discoveries of ourstudy, the development of an algorithm that automatically calculates the probability of solar eruption for each region on the solar surface by using our findings is
expected in the near future.

INTRODUCTION
The Sun sometimes releases its magnetic energy, which is accumulated
in the solar atmosphere, as solar eruptions. These phenomena are called "solar
flares" and "coronal mass ejections (CMEs)," for which magnetic energy ismainly released, respectively, as thermal or kinetic energy. Solar eruptions
sometimes impact to the space environment around the Earth by ejecting
high-energy particles, radiations, plasma, and magnetic fields. Some serious
impacts from solar eruptions are feared: such as radiation exposure of humanbodies in the International Space Station and on polar aircraft routes,
interruption of HF communication, electrical outages, errors in global
09 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

positioning systems, and damage to spacecraft and satellites. Therefore, it isrequired to understand and forecast when and where solar eruptions will
occur, and how large they will be, in order protect our infrastructures fromspace disasters.

SOLAR ERUPTION TRIGGER PROBLEM
Solar eruptions generally occur in the solar atmosphere over a sunspot, aso-called solar active region (Figure 1a). In an active region, magnetic fields
connect sunspots and are often helically sheared and twisted by the motion of
their root sunspots. These sheared, twisted magnetic fields accumulate

Yumi BAMBA
magnetic energy that drives solar eruptions and is released by such eruptions.
A bundle of helically twisted magnetic fields known as a "magnetic flux rope
(MFR)" is formed by the reconnection of sheared magnetic fields in an active
region by some trigger, and this phenomenon is what we identify as a solar
eruption, including flares and CMEs. As summarized in Figure 2, one ofeither MFR formation by magnetic reconnection or evolution bymagnetohydrodynamics (MHD) instability first takes place, and these twoprocesses mutually reinforce each other. The MFR erupts after it has grownsufficiently by this reinforcing process, and causes a flare or CME (orsometimes both). However, the “trigger” that leads the sheared magnetic
fields to enter the reinforcing process of magnetic reconnection and MHD
instability has not yet been revealed.

DISCOVERY OF A TRIGGER OF SOLAR ERUPTIONS
We discovered small-scale magnetic field structures that can serve as a
trigger of actual major solar eruptions (Figure 1b) from detailed analysis ofobservational data by Japanese HINODE satellites [1]. The discovered
magnetic field structures quantitatively satisfy geometrical conditions that areproposed as "trigger magnetic fields" by a theoretical model based on
numerical simulations [2]. There are two types of trigger magnetic fields thatcharacterize entrance into of the reinforcing process in Figure 2, depending on
which physical phenomenon first takes place: magnetic reconnection or
MHD instability. We discovered both types of trigger magnetic fields forsolar eruptions occurring in different active regions. There have been huge
numbers of studies that qualitatively discuss solar eruption processes fromobservational or numerical approaches; however, our findings are the first in
the world to quantitatively and directly identify suspected triggers of solar
eruptions. Our results are also significant in terms of obser vationalverification of the theoretical model in the sense that we directly measured
geometrical parameters that characterize trigger magnetic fields (i.e., solar
eruption onset conditions) from observational data.
Moreover, we found that there should be an additional condition forsolar eruption onset [1], although this has not been mentioned in thetheoretical model. This is suggested by our data analysis results indicating thata solar eruption does not immediately occur even when a trigger magnetic
field appears in an active region. Therefore, we conducted additional data
analysis and found a new condition of "magnetic flux of a trigger magnetic
field," which indicates when solar eruptions occur. A trigger magnetic field isable to work to invoke the reinforcing process when it gains sufficientmagnetic flux.

trigger magnetic fields is not a necessary condition but merely a sufficientcondition of solar eruption onset. Solar eruption requires both magnetic
energ y accumulation in both large-scale sheared magnetic fields andsmall-scale trigger magnetic fields. Our studies show the whole picture of thesolar eruption process including its trigger, which have never been discovered
before, such as summarized in Figure 2. Some important precursory
phenomena in the solar atmosphere, which should be observed to predict
solar eruption, have also been discovered. As a next step, we should attempt
an experiment of solar eruption forecasting by developing an automatic
detection method of trigger magnetic fields and precursory phenomena for
newly appeared active regions on the solar surface. In this way, we are also able
to evaluate and optimize parameters that characterize trigger magnetic fields
and precursory phenomena. In near future, a forecasting algorithm that
automatically calculates the probability of solar eruption for each active
region on the solar surface is expected to be developed.
Furthermore, it is necessary to predict if the MFR will come to the Earthafter it is ejected from the Sun in order to forecast the influence of solar
eruptions to the Earth and humankind in a true sense. Impacts from solar
eruptions such as those mentioned in the introduction are caused by theinteraction of magnetic fields between MFR from the Sun and the Earth's
magnetosphere. Therefore, understanding and forecasting both solar eruption
onset and the propagation of ejected MFR are necessary to establish practical"space weather forecasting," which can predict disturbances in the spaceenvironment around the Earth due to solar activities.

Figure 1. A solar flare in an active region (a) and its trigger magnetic field (b).

PRECURSORY PHENOMENA OF SOLAR ERUPTION
We further discovered precursory phenomena of solar eruption. For
instance, "precursor brightening" is intermittently observed in the relatively
lower solar atmosphere over trigger magnetic fields, generally from a few
hours to a few minutes before a solar eruption onset. Transient but significant
plasma flow in the solar atmosphere was simultaneously observed withprecursor brightening for several major solar eruptions [3, 4]. It can beinterpreted that these plasma flows are caused by plasma ejection bysmall-scale magnetic reconnection over the trigger magnetic field, by its
features such as temperature and velocity. This small-scale magnetic
reconnection leads the reinforcing process in Figure 2, and the precursor
brightening and plasma flows can be considered as proxies of interaction
between a small-scale trigger magnetic field and pre-existing sheared (twisted)magnetic fields.
Moreover, another precursory phenomenon was observed in the higher
solar atmosphere: pre-existing magnetic fields, which are larger in scale thantrigger magnetic fields, expanded from few hours before the eruption onset,
relating to the appearance of trigger magnetic fields and precursor brightening[5]. The expansion of large-scale magnetic fields indicates that the magnetic
fields will be unstable, that is, this observed result suggests that a small-scale
trigger magnetic field works to destabilize larger-scale magnetic fields in an
active region.

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
We have discovered that small-scale characteristic magnetic fieldstructures can be a trigger of solar eruptions. However, the appearance of such

Figure 2. Schema of the solar eruption onset process

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the co-authors: Prof. Kusano, Dr.
Imada, Dr. Inoue, Dr. Lee, Dr. Yamamoto, and Dr. Okamoto. I also appreciate thesatellite development/operation teams of HINODE and SDO.

References[1] Bamba Y. et al., “Study on the triggering process of solar flares based on
HINODE/SOT observations,” The Astrophysical Journal, 778, 48 (13pp.), 2013
[2] Kusano K., Bamba Y. et al., “Magnetic field structures triggering solar flares andcoronal mass ejections,” The Astrophysical Journal, 760, 31 (9pp.), 2012[3] Bamba Y. et al., “Study on precursor activity of the X1.6 flare in the great AR 12192
with SDO, IRIS, and HINODE,” The Astrophysical Journal, 840, 116 (13pp.), 2017[4] Bamba Y. et al., “Intrusion of a magnetic peninsula toward the neighboring opposite
polarity region that triggers the largest solar flare in solar cycle 24,” The AstrophysicalJournal, under review[5] Imada S., Bamba Y., and Kusano K., “Coronal behavior before the large flare onset,”
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 66, SP1, S17 (11pp.), 2014

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 10

Research Highlights _ 03

Non-equilibrium phenomena in ultracold
quantum gases

Experimental setup for ultracold quantum gases courtesy of Prof. Chandra Raman at Georgia Institute of Technology

Kazuya FUJIMOTO
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Graduate School of Engineering / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: kazuya_fujimoto@rover.nuap.nagoya-u.ac.jp

ecent progress of experimental technology allows one to investigate non-equilibrium quantum phenomena in a highly controllable manner. One of themost promising playgrounds is an ultracold quantum gas, which has played an essential role in uncovering the fundamental quantum physics behindcomplicated dynamics over decades. Employing ultracold quantum gases, I have theoretically studied the universal aspects of non-equilibrium phenomena. This
article introduces my recent works concerning turbulence and relaxation dynamics.

R

INTRODUCTION
Many natural phenomena around us, such as the turbulent flow of a riveror a leaf falling from a tree, display highly complicated dynamics. Despite
being familiar with these kinds of dynamic phenomena, we have notsatisfactorily understood universal principles to describe them. This situation
is in stark contrast to that of equilibrium physics, and the construction of a
unified framework for non-equilibrium phenomena has been one of the mostessential issues for many years. Historically, great efforts in previous literature
have uncovered universal aspects of non-equilibrium physics in classicalsystems such as critical dynamics in various fluids [1]. On the other hand, inquantum systems, several difficulties in experiments had hindered the

11 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

investigation of non-equilibrium phenomena for a long time.
This situation changed after the realization of an ultracold quantumgas. The system is a kind of atomic vapor cooled in the order of 10~100nK,
and behaves as a quantum many-body system due to its ultralow temperature[2]. Furthermore, modern optical technology allows the control of atomic
gases with great accuracy, and enables the study of non-equilibrium quantum
phenomena in a highly controllable manner. In fact, many works havediscovered fundamental properties of quantum dynamics. Typical examples
include thermalization in integrable models, many-body localization, and theKibble-Zurek mechanism.
Using ultracold quantum gases, I have theoretically studied universal

Kazuya FUJIMOTO
dynamics in quantum systems. Here, I will describe two research topics: one isrelaxation phenomena and the other is turbulence.

collaboration work experimentally demonstrated that the turbulent cascade
description still holds in the quantum system.

UNIVERSAL RELAXATION DYNAMICSCONCLUDING REMARKSOne of the prominent features of ultracold quantum gases is isolationfrom environments (heat baths). This assures that the system is well regarded
as a microcanonical system, and poses a fundamental question concerning thebasis of statistical mechanics: “How does an isolated quantum system
thermalize?” In contrast to open quantum systems, von Neumann entropy
conserves in time, and thus it is interesting to study thermalization in isolated
quantum system. Many theoretical and experimental works have in factt a c kl e d th i s i s s u e , un c o v e r i n g i nt e r e s ti n g p h e n o m e na s u c h a s
prethermalization and many-body localization [3].
Against this backdrop, I have studied scale-invariant aspects ofrelaxation dynamics. Such invariance usually emerges close to a second-orderphase transition point, and the universality has been unveiled using
renormalization group analysis [1]. However, previous literature has foundthe emergence of scale-invariant relaxation dynamics even without or far froma second-order phase transition point, and the universality has been recently
discussed from the perspective of non-thermal fixed points (NTFPs) [4]. Veryrecently, such universal dynamics has been experimentally observed inultracold quantum gases [5, 6].
My r e c e n t w o r k [ 7 ] c o n s i d e r s r e l a x a t i o n d y n a m i c s i n a n
antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose gas in a one-dimensional system, and has founda n o ve l m e c ha n i sm f o r th e em er g en c e o f a n N T F P. D u e t o th e
antiferromagnetic nature, the order parameter in this system is a nematic
tensor rather than a spin vector, and it can capture how the relaxation
promotes in time. I have theoretically demonstrated that the nematic order
grows in the course of the relaxation process through the annihilation ofmagnetic solitons and then exhibits dynamic scaling, which is a hallmark of
the NTFP.
To observe the scale-invariant relaxation process experimentally, I
collaborated with Prof. C. Raman of the Georgia Institute of Technology, andwe observed a signature of the magnetic soliton [8], which is a key ingredientfor the relaxation dynamics. The top photo on the first page shows anexperimental setup in the Raman group. Currently, we have yet to observe thescale-invariant dynamics, but I believe that this international collaboration
will open an important avenue for uncovering universal dynamics in an
isolated quantum system.

My research interest is universal aspects of non-equilibrium quantum
phenomena, and I have theoretically studied relaxation dynamics, turbulence,fluctuation growth, and quantum chaos, mainly in ultracold quantum gases.
In this article, I introduce the former two topics including the international
collaborations with the experimental groups. In future, I will further pursue
universal quantum dynamics from a theoretical viewpoint while endeavoring
to work with international groups.

Fig. 1 Numerical results for time evolution of density profiles
Time evolution of the density profiles in the x-y plane are shown. The panels exhibit thatfine structures grow in time, and this is a signature of the energy cascade from large tosmall scales. [Reprinted figure with permission from K. Fujimoto and M. Tsubota (2016)
Phys Rev A 93, 039901. Copyright (2016) of the American Physical Society]

TURBULENCE
Turbulence is a strongly disordered and unpredictable non-equilibrium
phenomenon, and have been a long-standing problem in modern physics.
Over the centuries, many researchers have tackled the difficult issue, but our
understanding of turbulence has remained unsatisfactory. Thanks to great
efforts in previous literature, however, we know that a correlation function for
the turbulent velocity field exhibits a scale-invariant behavior arising from a
uniform energ y transfer from large to small scales. This energ y-cascade
description is the basis of turbulence theory, which has been originallydeveloped in classical fluids.
This kind of complicated hydrodynamics emerges even in quantum systems,
and plays an important role in understanding non-equilibrium quantum
phenomena. An utracold quantum gas is recently becoming a promisingsystem for investigating universal aspects of turbulence in quantum systems.
I have theoretically studied weak wave turbulence in an ultracold quantum
gas, and have found the scale-invariant dynamics consistent with a constantwave-energy cascade [9], where Bogoliubov excitations interact with eachother through three-wave interactions. Figure 1 shows my numerical result forthe density profiles in the turbulence, and it is seen that fine structures are
excited in time. This is a signature of a turbulent cascade. To investigate such aturbulent cascade experimentally, I collaborated with the experimental groupled by Z. Hadzibabic of Cambridge University. As a result, we observedcascade dynamics consistent with the turbulence where the single-particle
kinetic energ y is transferred through four-wave interactions [10]. This

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank C. Raman for granting permission to use the top photo.

References[1] P. C. Hohenberg and B. I. Halperin, Rev. Mod. Phys. 49, 435 (1977)[2] I. Bloch, J. Dalibard, and W. Zwerger, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 885 (2008)[3] J. Eisert, M. Friesdorf, and C. Gogolin, Nat. Phys. 11, 123 (2015)[4] J. Berges, A. Rothkopf, and J. Schmidt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 041603 (2008)[5] M. Prüfer, P. Kunkel, H. Strobel, S. Lannig, D. Linnemann, C.-M. Schmied, J.
Berges, T. Gasenzer, and M. K. Oberthaler, Nature 563, 217 (2018)[6] S. Erne, R. Buecker, T. Gasenzer, J. Berges, and J. Schmiedmayer, Nature 563, 225(2018)[7] K. Fujimoto, R. Hamazaki, and M. Ueda, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 173001 (2019)[8] X . Chai, D. Lao, K . Fujimoto, R . Hamazaki, M. Ueda , and C. R aman,arXiv:1912.06672.
[9] K. Fujimoto and M. Tsubota, Phys. Rev. A 91, 053620 (2015)[10] N. Navon, C. Eigen, J. Zhang, R. Lopes, A. L. Gaunt, K. Fujimoto, M. Tsubota, R.
P. Smith, Z. Hadzibabic, Science 366, 382 (2019)

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 12

Research Highlights _ 04

The secret life of plants–Diving deep inside the flower–

Multicolor two-photon imaging of Arabidopsis pistils (female reproductive parts of a flower). Pistils were pollinated with pollen expressing fluorescent proteins. The pistil on theleft is non-treated, while that on the right is treated with ClearSee (plant clearing solution). Each pollen tube is clearly visible inside the transparent pistil on the right, which helps
us track precisely how fertilization occurs deep inside a flower.

Yoko MIZUTA
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: mizuta.yoko@f.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

uccessful fertilization is important for flowering plants to be able to leave their progeny, i.e., their seeds. Pollen tube guidance is a unique plant navigation
system that is necessary for male and female germ cells to meet inside a flower. The female plant gamete, or egg cell, is enclosed in an ovule, which is deeply
embedded inside the flower’ s pistil. However, the male plant gametes, the sperm cells, are non-motile. Thus, a pollen tube germinated from pollen grows inside thepistil and has to deliver its non-motile sperm cells to the egg cell as cargo. In many angiosperms, male and female gametes fertilize on a one-to-one basis, even whena pistil possesses many pollen tubes and ovules. Precise pollen tube guidance toward each ovule is essential for such one-to-one coupling in multiovular plants.
However, a full overview is still unknown, since plant fertilization occurs deep inside the flower. To overcome this challenge, two-photon imaging techniques andpollen tube-mediated genome modification technology have been developed. These studies will elucidate the molecular mechanism of pollen tube guidance, andpromote the study of plant reproduction.

S

INTRODUCTION
Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, are estimated to comprise
more than 295,000 species, and are found in almost every habitat on the earth[1]. In flowering plants, fertilization occurs in the flower to make seeds. Thus,
successful fertilization is important for flowering plants to be able to leave
their offspring. Seed formation and plant development are essential not only
for the plants themselves, but also for human life, in terms of foodproduction, oxygen release, lumber supply, the water cycle, and so on.

13 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

One of the major differences between the fertilization of flowering
plants and animals is the method of delivering the male gamete to the female
gamete. In flowering plants, the male gametes, or sperm cells, are included in
the pollen. Unlike in almost all animals, plant sperm cells are non-motile, sothey need to be delivered through the pollen tube to the egg cell. However,the female gamete, or egg cell, is enclosed in an ovule, which comprises several
cell layers. Additionally, the ovules are almost always deeply embedded inside
the female reproductive organ, the pistil, to avoid various external stresses andYoko MIZUTA
damage. Thus, the pollen tube must grow through the inside of the pistil andreach the ovule to deliver precisely its enclosed sperm cells. During thisprocess, a plant-specific navigation system called “pollen tube guidance” hasevolved to enable the pollen tube to reach the ovule [2].
Pollen tube guidance is needed to facilitate the successful fertilization of
flowering plants. In some flowering species, such as Brassicaceae, one pistil
includes multiple ovules (these are known as “multiovular plants”). In one
species of Brassicaceae, Arabidopsis thaliana, one flower contains around 60
ovules and 100 pollen tubes. If multiple pollen tubes are attracted to the sameovule, the number of pollen tubes will be insufficient, resulting in the
production of fewer seeds. Indeed, in nature, multiple pollen tubes are rarely
attracted to a single ovule, occurring in less than 1% of instances [3]. Such
precise one-to-one coupling between a sibling ovule and pollen tube is
intriguing. Do pollen tubes compete with or help each other? When, where
and how is the attraction or non-attraction of pollen tubes determined? A
full-overview of such molecular mechanisms is still unknown, because plantfertilization occurs deep inside the opaque flower, impeding visualization of
the process. Thus, in vitro experiments have been usually used to observe
pollen tube guidance (Figure 1). The relationship between one pollen tube
and one ovule can be observed by this method (Figure 2). Pollen tube
attractant peptides and their receptors have also been identified this way[4-7]. However, in this method, some female reproductive tissues are removed
by dissection, and ovular alignment is lost. Thus, it cannot mimic naturalpollen tube guidance in the pistil. In vivo analysis of pollen tube guidance in a
fixed pistil has also been performed. However, it is difficult to distinguishindividual pollen tubes by staining them with dyes. These issues create
barriers to the analysis of pollen tube guidance.

of the pistil (title figure). These methods will help accelerate the discovery of
new phenomena in not only plant reproduction but also plant biologicalresearch. Additionally, we have developed pollen tube-mediated genetic
modification technology [10]. As mentioned above, pollen is a vector thatcarries male gamete cells. We are trying to establish an efficient biolistic
delivery system of genome modified tools into pollen, which is directly
pollinated to the pistil.
Live and in vivo imaging with these techniques will provide important
insights into plant reproduction in nature. Such spatiotemporal informationis needed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of pollen tube guidance invivo. Further analyses using these tools will promote the study of plantbiology including plant reproduction.

Figure 2. Fertilized Arabidopsis ovule by in vitro assay. A pollen tube
expressing green fluorescent proteins is attracted to and enters the
micropyle of the ovule. The green nucleus signals in the ovule indicate that
fertilization and seed development have occurred.

References
Figure 1. In vitro assay to analyze pollen tube guidance. A cut pollinatedpistil (left) and seven dissected ovules (right) of an Arabidopsis are placedand cultured on an agarose plate. Colored pollen tubes expressing
fluorescent proteins become elongated and are attracted to the ovules. This
assay reveals how individual pollen tubes are guided to each ovule.

APPROACH AND TOOLS
We have been developing plant-adapted live and in vivo imaging
techniques to overcome such plant-specific issues. Two-photon excitation
microscopy (2PEM) is laser-scanning microscopy using multiphoton
excitation. This microscopy offers less-invasive and deeper penetration
imaging of living organisms. Suitable fluorescent proteins and excitation
wavelengths are also important for imaging of deep plant tissues [8].
Live-imaging by 2PEM is a useful tool to observe the same pollen tubes andovules under a microscope for several hours or days. A plant clearing solution,
ClearSee, has also been developed for in vivo imaging of PTs deep inside thepistil [9]. This is a powerful tool for whole imaging of the intact morphology[1] Christenhusz, M.J.M. & Byng, J.W. "The number of known plant species in theworld and its annual increase," Phytotaxa 261, 201–217 (2016).
[2] Mizuta, Y. & Higashiyama, T. "Chemical signaling for pollen tube guidance at a
glance" J. Cell Sci. 131 (2018).
[3] Rotman, N. et al. "Female control of male gamete delivery during fertilization in
Arabidopsis thaliana" Curr. Biol. 13, 432–436 (2003).
[4] Okuda, S. et al. "Defensin-like polypeptide LUREs are pollen tube attractants
secreted from synergid cells," Nature 458 (2009).
[5] Takeuchi, H. & Higashiyama, T. "Tip-localized receptors control pollen tube
growth and LURE sensing in Arabidopsis," Nature 531, 245–248 (2016).
[6] Wang, T. et al. "A receptor heteromer mediates the male perception of female
attractants in plants," Nature 531, 241–244 (2016).
[7] Zhong, S. et al. "Cysteine-rich peptides promote interspecific genetic isolation in
Arabidopsis," Science 364, eaau9564 (2019).
[8] Mizuta, Y., Kurihara, D. & Higashiyama, T. "Two-photon imaging with longer
wavelength excitation in intact Arabidopsis tissues," Protoplasma 252, 1231–1240 (2015).
[9] Kurihara, D., Mizuta, Y., Sato, Y. & Higashiyama, T. "ClearSee: a rapid opticalclearing reagent for whole-plant fluorescence imaging," Development 142, 4168–4179(2015).
[10] Mizuta, Y. & Nagahara, S. Plant genome editing method. Patent, JP, 6614622, B.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 14

Research Highlights _ 05

Surviving between East and West:An exiled Byzantine Empire in
the thirteenth-century Eurasian context

Figure 1: Copy of a letter from Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241) to John III Batatzes (1221–1254), issued on May 21, 1237, recorded in the Registro Vaticano (official register of thepapal chancery in the Vatican) 18 (folio 291 recto).

Koji MURATA
Designated Assistant Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Graduate School of Humanities / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: murata.koji@e.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

he purpose of this study is to analyze the diplomacy of the thirteenth-century Byzantine Emperor John III Batatzes (1221–1254) with foreign polities fromT multilateral perspectives, which has thus far tended to be analyzed in a bilateral framework, and to place the individual foreign policies in the general

diplomatic strategies of John III. At that time, the Byzantine Empire was in exile having lost its capital, Constantinople, and its influence in international politics
has been considered to be fairly limited. However, recent research has revealed that Byzantium during the reign of John III was able to exert influence not only in

INTRODUCTION
As is known, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, wascaptured by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, following which the Byzantines
established two separate governments in exile in Asia Minor and the Balkans.
The two exiled empires, the Despotate of Epiros based in the southern
Balkans, and the Empire of Nicaea based in western Asia Minor, competed tobe the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire. Gradually, Nicaea
prevailed and finally recaptured Constantinople from the Latins, declaring
the restoration of the Empire in 1261. The Byzantine Empire in this period of

15 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

exile is usually mentioned as a precursor to the history of the restored late
Byzantine Empire (1261–1453).
The state of research began to change around the 1970s when several
researches centered on political and social history of the Empire of Nicaea
emerged. These studies revealed that the exiled government in Nicaea paid
keen attention to its diplomatic relations with the surrounding polities such as
the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Despotate of Epiros, the Bulgarians,
the Rum Seljuks, and several Italian city-states, and that Nicaea still
conducted active diplomacy and operated as an important actor in the Eastern

Koji MURATA
Mediterranean world despite its small size. Furthermore, recent research has
shown that the Empire during the reign of John III Batatzes (1221–1254) wasable to influence not only the Eastern Mediterranean but also the wider
Eurasian continent, including the Papacy and the Mongol Empire.

in the context of John III’s overall foreign policy. As the results of recent
research have shown, the diplomatic partners of John III were not limited to
the Eastern Mediterranean world, but encompassed more distant polities
across eastern and western Eurasia. In this study, we will analyze these
individual diplomatic negotiation processes in an integrated manner andreexamine their intentions and historical significance within the frameworkof Eurasian history. This will reveal the consistency of or change in John’sforeign policy strateg y. Furthermore, close examination of the relations
among the various polities in Eurasia including the Byzantine Empire during
the reign of John III is expected to posit the Byzantine Empire in the Eurasiancontext enjoying an unprecedented scale of international relations. Although
limited to a short period of time, this research has the potential to draw a new
picture of thirteenth-century global history from the Byzantine perspective, aperiod that has been much discussed in recent years but that has been focusedon the Mongols and Western Europe.

SOURCES AND METHODS

Figure 2: Exiled Byzantium in the first half of the thirteenth century (fromJ. Haldon, The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History, London: Palgrave,
2005, 119).

Previous research on John III’s foreign policy, however, mostly discussed
bilateral negotiations between the Empire of Nicaea and a single other polity.
The majority of discussions tended to emphasize that most of the emperor’s
diplomatic negotiations were for the purpose of recapturing Constantinople,
based on the historical fact that the Empire of Nicaea finally recaptured thecapital in 1261. The problem with these earlier studies is that they regard thepolitical intentions of the Nicaean government a posteriori and from a specificpoint of view. I consider that individual foreign policy is not always carriedout with a single other polity in mind, and must be viewed in the context of amore complex network of multilateral relationships. This perspective will
enable us to articulate the foreign relations between exiled Byzantium andother polities, and reveal John III’s diplomatic policy. In such a discussion, it isalso important to consider these relations, setting aside the historical fact thatthe Byzantines later recaptured Constantinople.
The question posed by this research project will elucidate previously
unknown or underestimated aspects of Nicaean foreign policy.

Figure 3: Portrait of John III Batatzes, Emperor of the Empire of Nicaea(from codex mutinensis gr. 122, folio 294 recto, Biblioteca Estense
Universitaria, Modena).

Due to the limitations of historical sources, it is impossible to investigate
every relationship that the Byzantines had with other polities. Rather, I focus
on relations among states that are relatively well recorded in narrative anddocumentary sources, paying attention to lost sources. In order to reveal themultilateral aspects of foreign relations, it is also necessary to consider
diplomatic relations among other polities that established relations with the
Empire of Nicaea.
In considering the foreign policy of John III, it is essential to analyze thediplomatic documents exchanged between him and other polities. The total
number of documents that have been transmitted and that have been lost but
some parts of which are known through other sources is about thirty (inGreek, Latin, Persian, etc.). In addition, a number of narrative materials suchas chronicles, letters, travel accounts and merchants’ records compiled in
Byzantium and other polities, and by the Crusaders and tourists, make up forthe lack of documentary sources. As no systematic analysis has yet been madeon this issue, it is necessary to compile a register of diplomatic negotiations
between Byzantine and other forces in chronological order. In this way, thecontext of political negotiations conducted by John III with individual
powers will be clarified to some extent. For example, at the end of his reign,John frequently made expeditions to Bulgaria and Epiros in the Balkans, butwhile carrying out these expeditions he also negotiated on peaceful relations
with the more distant Mongol Empire by dispatching his envoy from Nicaea
to Karakorum, the Mongol capital.

Acknowledgements
This research is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19K13389.

References

RESEARCH FOCUS
The purpose of this study is to analyze the diplomatic negotiations
between the exiled Byzantine Empire in the reign of John III and otherpolities from multilateral perspectives, and to place the individual diplomacy[1] Murata K., “The Mongol’ s Approach to Anatolia and the Last Campaign ofEmperor John III Vatatzes,” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55/2, 470–488 (2015)[2] Murata K., “Dei et ecclesiae inimicus: A Correspondence between Pope Gregory IX
and John III Batatzes,” in Ozawa M. et al., eds., Communicating Papal Authority in the
Middle Ages, London: Routledge, forthcoming

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 16

Research Highlights _ 06

Gentle algebras and surface combinatorics

Figure 1. A three-dimensional associahedron given
by triangulations of a hexagon

Aaron CHAN
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Graduate School of Mathematics / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: aaron.kychan@gmail.com

e are interested in a certain class of mathematical objects called “gentle algebras.” They have been around in representation theory for quite some time, but

W recent advances in geometry indicate that many of the representation-theoretic properties of such algebras are intimately related to an associated compact
orientable real two-dimensional surface. As one of the many consequences, certain particularly homologically well-behaved collections, called “functorially finite
torsion classes” , of representations over a gentle algebra are found to correspond to certain collections of curves, called “laminations” , of the associated surface. Our
aim is to extend this correspondence to general torsion classes. In the following, we give a layman’s explanation of this bijection.

REPRESENTATION THEORY
The philosophy behind what we call “representation theory” in abstract
algebra is a simple one. Suppose you are given a Rubik’s cube and wish todescribe it to a blindfolded partner who does not know what such a thing is.
How would you go about it? Perhaps you would start by saying that it is a
cube with each face divided into a 3×3 box pattern, and that you can rotate
the faces, etc. The essence of representation theory is precisely this process
whereby we describe smaller pieces of well-understood information in orderto gain a better grasp of something more complex.
Representation theory does not only show you static snapshots, but also
how all possible manipulations of the object change the snapshot—somewhat
like describing how the rotation of each face changes the Rubik’s cube. You

17 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

can imagine, in the example above, that a representation to the audience is likea movie recording how different rotations of the Rubik’s cube change a single
facet. In addition, we are interested in the relations (called “morphisms” inmathematics) between different recordings. For example, it would be helpful
to say that the yellow-colored face is adjacent to the white-colored one, etc.
Putting representations and their morphisms together form what we call a“category.” Now, we can distinguish between different Rubik’s cubes bylooking at their associated categories of representations.

TORSION CLASSES
The categories of representations are often much too big to handle, andone way out is to look at certain nice subcategories. Those of interest to us areAaron CHAN
called “torsion classes.” Defining these for a general audience is impossible,
but it turns out that certain nice torsion classes, namely so-called “functoriallyfinite torsion classes”, can be generated (in a very specific sense which we willomit) by just a very few representations contained therein. Moreover, distinct
torsion classes give rise to distinct generating representations, and vice versa.

can be interpreted as curves on the associated marked surface.
Recall that if a torsion class is functorially finite, then it can be generated
by a certain collection of representations. It turns out that interpreting such acollection on the associated marked surface yields a lamination. In fact, thisyields a one-to-one correspondence between laminations and functoriallyfinite torsion classes.

TRIANGULATIONS
Let us recall the notion of triangulations before continuing with theexposition. For simplicity, let us focus on the case of (regular convex)
polygons. By definition, a triangulation is a maximal collection of pairwise
non-crossing arcs that connect one corner of a polygon to another. The
naming is due to the fact that if we cut the polygon along the arcs, then webreak down the polygon into triangles. For example, there are 14
triangulations for a hexagon, which are all shown in Figure 1.
Note that we have also drawn an edge connecting two triangulations if
they differ only by one arc. We will omit the representation-theoretic meaningof these edges, but remark that the large “solid” formed by taking vertices astriangulations of a polygon with edges as shown is called an “associahedra”.
The combinatorics underlying this is called “Catalan combinatorics”, which isarguably one of the most interesting theories and appears in hundreds of areasof mathematics.

Figure 3. Laminations of a disk with three interior marked points

A lamination on a marked surface is yet another type of maximal
collection of curves which encodes the topology of the said marked surface.
In fact, if none of the marked points is on the boundary of the surface, then it
is equivalent to a maximal non-crossing collection that has been mentioned
previously. However, if there are interior marked points, then instead of
having the curves shoot directly into the marked points, we require them towhirl around the marked points indefinitely. See Figure 3 for some examples.

GENTLE ALGEBRAS AND SURFACES
Recent advances tell us that if we look at the category of representations
over a gentle algebra, we can interpret the generating representations of afunctorially finite torsion class as certain well-behaved curves on a marked
surface (i.e., a compact orientable real two-dimensional surface equipped witha set of distinguished isolated points called “marked points”) uniquelydetermined by the algebra.
To be slightly more precise, we can specify a gentle algebra by thefollowing data: a marked surface and a maximal collection of pairwise
non-crossing arcs (i.e., having no intersections except at the marked points)
connecting the points. Triangulations of a polygon provide the simplest classof examples.

GOING INFINITE
If the gentle algebra of interest is defined by a triangulation on a surface,then every self-non-crossing curve that is not itself a loop appears as a memberof some lamination. As we start questioning what would happen if loops wereallowed in a lamination, we notice that such a generalized lamination allows
us to obtain some torsion classes that are not functorially finite. In Figure 4,
we show an example of a generalized lamination. The surface in this case is anannulus (a cylinder without its top and bottom faces) with a single marked
point on each boundary, and the three curves shown in color are the membersof a generalized lamination. Notice how the blue and pink curves, unlike
those in a triangulation, start from one marked point but continue infinitelyaround the loop (colored in green).
Our goal, in a simplified sense, is to demonstrate that this combinatorics
that extends the classical laminations gives rise to a complete classification of
all torsion classes for gentle algebras.

Figure 2. Turning arcs

The g overn ing obj e cts, ca l le d “proj e ctive mo du les”, of therepresentations over a gentle algebras are in correspondence with thenon-boundary arcs in the defining collection. The morphisms between theseprojective modules are completely determined by how the arcs are connectedin the surface. Namely, there is a morphism from one arc to another if we canobtain it by turning (half of ) it around one of its ends in the counterclockwise
direction. In Figure 2, we show two triangulations of a hexagon todemonstrate that we can turn arc b to arc c in both cases, but only arc a to arc
b in the left-hand case, and vice versa in the right-hand case. Note that in theleft-hand case, the turning from arc a to arc c is equivalent to turning from arc
a to arc b, and then to arc c; this is indeed how we can understand thecomposition operation between morphisms of projective modules.

REPRESENTATIONS, CURVES AND LAMINATIONS
We have only described a very small class of representations (projective
modules) in the previous section. Nevertheless, general (finite dimensional
linear) representations behave in more or less the same way. To skip over thetechnicalities, let us simply mention that representations of a gentle algebra

Figure 4. A generalized lamination in an annulus containing a simple closed
curve

Acknowledgements
The material explained in this article is based on an on-going joint work with Laurent
Demonet.

References[1] Demonet L., Iyama O., et. al., “Lattice theory of torsion classes,” arXiv:1711.01785[2] Fomin S., Thurston D., “Cluster algebras and triangulated surfaces. Part II: Lambda
lengths,” Memoir AMS 255 (2018)[3] Haiden F., Katzarkov L., Konstevich M., “Flat surfaces and stability structures,” Publ.
Math. Inst. Hautes Etudes Sci. 126, 247–318 (2017)[4] Palu Y., Pilaud V., Plamondon P.-G., “Non-kissing and non-crossing complexes for
locally gentle algebras,” arXiv: 1807.04730

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 18

Research Highlights _ 07

ELF and VLF magnetospheric plasma waves:
How to better understandthe near-Earth environment

Photograph of aurora taken during a research trip to the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory in Sodankyla, Finland, March 2018

Claudia MARTINEZ-CALDERON
Designated Associate Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Graduate School of Science / Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: claudia@isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp

n space, electromagnetic plasma waves of various frequencies and intensities are naturally present around the Earth. In the frequency range between 3 Hz
and 30 kHz, these are known as Extremely Low and Very Low Frequency (ELF/VLF) waves. They are believed to be generated at the geomagnetic equator,
after which they can propagate in the magnetosphere and, under the right conditions, pass through the ionosphere and reach the ground. These waves interact withenergetic electrons (~100 keV) causing their acceleration or loss, playing a fundamental role in radiation belt dynamics, but also on ionospheric phenomena such as
the aurora. VLF/ ELF waves are thus efficient tools to study the physics of the different plasma processes in both the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. My work
is based on conjugated or simultaneous observations showing the same waves, with or without one-to-one correspondence, detected by satellites in space and by
VLF receivers located on the ground.

I

INTRODUCTION
The Earth has a magnetic field that creates a cavity called themagnetosphere where particles from the solar wind are trapped in theradiation belts. These belts surround our planet like donuts filled withenergetic particles, ions and electrons, with energies ranging from a few
keV to several MeV. This population of particles can be harmful to bothhuman life and electronics in space. A majority of the lifespan of asatellite is spent in these regions where sudden changes of the plasmacomposition might result in catastrophic failures. The magnetosphere is
not only filled with particles but electromagnetic plasma waves are alsopresent, such as the naturally generated ELF/VLF emissions. These waves
19 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

can interact with energetic particles through resonant interactions (Fig.
1), resulting in electrons being accelerated or pushed into the loss cone,causing their precipitation into the atmosphere. Electron precipitation is
one of the mechanisms behind the existence of the wonderful andvisually impressive auroras, but it can affect other processes in theionosphere, which are also of interest. In our quest to develop humanactivities in space, it has become of vital importance to understand thise nv i r o nm e nt t o s a f e l y s e n d huma n s a n d s a t e l l i t e s b e y o n d o ur
atmosphere. Developing protection mechanisms for both humans andsatellites in the magnetosphere requires that we comprehend the rolethat ELF/VLF waves play in the environment around the Earth.

Claudia MARTINEZ-CALDERON
simultaneously on the ground and on board the satellite in the innermagnetosphere (Fig. 3). These kinds of events are rather rare, and are coveredby only a handful of published papers. By studying one event, we
experimentally determined the importance that density plays in wave
propagation, which was crucial in understanding how the waves propagatedfrom their source region to the ground [3]. Furthermore, two additional
events observed on opposite sides of the magnetosphere revealed therelationship between magnetic field variations and the spectral features of the
waves [4].

Figure 1. Wave-particle interactions that can occur between ELF/VLF plasma
waves and electrons

GROUND-BASED STUDIES
Our work started using VLF receivers located at ground stations (Fig. 2)
to study the properties of ELF/VLF emissions particularly at subauroral
latitudes, slightly below the auroral oval. We studied the temporal andfrequency properties of waves on the ground. Based on several cases detectedduring an observational campaign, we used polarization analysis to discover
the properties of ELF/VLF waves at subauroral latitudes [1]. Then we
performed a statistical analysis using a full year of ELF/VLF wave
observations on the ground. We studied their occurrence rate, as a function of
MLT and ongoing substorm and storm activity. We also considered theirtypes and frequency features [2].

GROUND-SPACE STUDIES
To gain a better understanding of how ELF/VLF waves propagate in
the magnetosphere, we then studied conjugated events between the groundand satellites. We defined these events as those where we are observing thesame waves (with the same temporal, spectral and frequency variations)Figure 2. Example of a one-to-one conjugated event observed between the
ground station of Kannuslehto, Finland (top) and the Arase satellite(bottom)

LATEST RESULTS
Thanks to the recent availability of several new data sets—both on the
ground, like the PWING project, and in space, with the Japanese Arasesatellite—we have increased our detection of conjugated events. We haveanalyzed 13 cases in a multi-event study where we have also found new
information on the ionospheric exit point of the waves, probably affected byplasma background density [5]. We are currently working on a methodology
to increase the number of conjugated events in order to gather more
information on how the waves propagate from their generation region to theground. While these studies have given us important information on theproperties of ELF/VLF waves, they have also raised new questions. We hopethat by continuing with this work we will be able to solve some of thesequestions, such as: How do ELF/VLF wave propagate under different
geomagnetic conditions? What are the parameters that affect their generationand propagation, and is it possible to quantify them? Would we be able topredict the path of the waves knowing the magnetospheric conditions? How
does their path affect their interaction with electrons, and under which
conditions?

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science, and by the JSPS International Research Fellowship. We
thank Prof. Kazuo Shiokawa and Prof. Yuto Katoh for their continued support, as well as
their respective research groups in Nagoya and Tohoku Universities.

References

Figure 2. Example of a VLF receiver located at the ground station ofAthabasca, Canada, showing the instrument set up (top) and during auroral
activity (bottom)[1] Martinez-Calderon et al. (2015). “Polarization analysis of VLF/ELF waves observedat subauroral latitudes during the VLFCHAIN campaign,” Earth, Planets and Space
67.1, pp. 1–13
[2] Martinez-Calderon et al. (2015). “Statistical study of ELF/VLF emissions at
subauroral latitudes in Athabasca, Canada,” J. of Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 120.10, pp.
8455–8469[3] Martinez-Calderon et al. (2016). “ELF/VLF wave propagation at subauroral
latitudes: Conjugate observation between the ground and Van Allen Probes A,” J. of
Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 121, pp. 5384–5393[4] Martinez-Calderon et al. (2019). “Conjugate observations of dayside and nightside
VLF chorus and QP emissions between Arase (ERG) and Kannuslehto, Finland,” J. of
Geophys. Res. Space Physics, Accepted for publication September 2019[5] Martinez-Calderon et al. (2019). “Multi-event study of ELF/VLF propagation using
Kannuslehto and Arase conjunctions,” Geophys. Res. Lett., under revision

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 20

Research Highlights _ 08

Elastic and inelastic deformation in thecrust from geodetic observations

E-W strain rate distributions in Central Japan before (top row) and after (bottom row) the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake based on GPS observations. The middle and right columns
are the long and short wavelength components of the strain rate distributions, respectively. Persistent localized contraction is revealed in the Northern Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone(the area enclosed by broken lines) in the short wavelengths, while the reverse motion is seen in the long wavelengths.

Angela MENESES-GUTIERREZ
Designated Assistant Professor of the Young Leaders Cultivation Program
Disaster Mitigation Research Center/ Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University
E-mail: angela@seis.nagoya-u.ac.jp

study crustal deformation through the analysis of geodetic data. Here, I discuss deformation in the Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone, and the distinction
between elastic and inelastic deformation within the zone. Such distinction has been difficult to establish due to the lack of dense observation throughthe different stages of the earthquake cycle. Utilizing the crustal response on the NKTZ to enforced deformation due to the MW9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake, I
explored this topic and found that a large part of the deformation within it is inelastic.

I

INTRODUCTION

the crust is fundamental to understanding strain accumulation in the crust,

Crustal deformation can be classified macroscopically into elastic andinelastic deformation. Elastic deformation represents reversible processes,
where tectonic motion causes strain changes proportional to stress changes.
Such elastic strain is repeatedly released in the form of large earthquakes, likethe 2011 M W 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake. On the other hand, inelastic
deformation represents an irreversible process, in which strain accumulates
over geological time to form a geomorphological landscape, like the Yoro
mountain range. The distinction between elastic and inelastic properties ofand has important implications for seismic hazard evaluation.

21 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

THE NIIGATA-KOBE TECTONIC ZONE (NKTZ)
Northeastern Japan had been under steady east-west contraction before
2011, mainly due to the subduction of the Pacific plate. In this area, particularattention has been drawn to the NKTZ, a deformation belt in the eastern
margin of the Japan Sea where large east-west geodetic contraction has beenreported. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of theAngela MENESES-GUTIERREZ
contraction in the area, whether elastic or inelastic. However, observation
limited to the interseismic period has made it difficult to find a unique

A CLOSER LOOK: MID-NIIGATA

interpretation.

In 2010, the Association for the Development of Earthquake Prediction(ADEP), in collaboration with Nagoya University, constructed 20 continuous

NATURAL ROCK EXPERIMENT

GPS sites in the Mid-Niigata area for crustal monitoring. Analysis of this data
showed that although persistent contraction can be seen in the NKTZ in

The MW9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake struck eastern Japan on March 11,
2011. This seismic event caused instantaneous E-W extension and

Mid-Niigata before and after the Tohoku-oki earthquake, the amplitude andhorizontal location of the contraction is different (Figure 2). I found thatsignificant postseismic deformation over Northeast Japan, including the
NKTZ.

these differences represent the coexistence of an ongoing inelastic process,concurring with my previous results, as well as elastic heterogeneities within

Crustal deformation in different stages of the earthquake cycle at aplate boundary can be considered as a natural rock deformation experimentwith distinct boundary conditions. Elastic and inelastic sources are expected

the crust acting in a different sense before and after the 2011 Tohoku-oki
earthquake (Meneses-Gutierrez et al., 2018). This demonstrates theimportance of dense observation in the analysis of crustal deformation.

to have characteristic responses to the loading and unloading associatedwith large earthquakes, such as the Tohoku-oki earthquake (Figure 1).
Before the earthquake, NE Japan was under steady contraction. In thissituation, general elastic contraction is expected, as well as contraction for
local elastic and inelastic sources. At the moment of the earthquake, an
instantaneous elastic extension was observed, since inelastic sources ofdeformation do not have instantaneous responses. After the earthquake, theextension continued through NE Japan. If there exist inelastic sources ofdeformation, their effects should appear as contraction even under thegeneral extension of NE Japan. Thus, by close examination of thedeformation responses before, during and after a large earthquake, it ispossible to separate elastic and inelastic contributions, allowing us toinvestigate detailed properties of the crust.

F i g u re 2 . Lo n g i t u d i n a l p ro f i l e s a c ro s s M i d - N i i g a t a f o r t h e E -W
short-wavelength strain rates before (gray) and after (black) the 2011
Tohoku-oki earthquake

CLOSING REMARKS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
My findings give a new insight into the evaluation of the seismic
potential of fault zones within Japan. Previous studies assumed that thegeodetic data in Japan were a direct measure of the elastic strain accumulation
due to interplate locking. My research shows that a large portion of thecontraction in the NKTZ is inelastic, and direct interpretation of the strain
rate as seismic moment accumulation leads to an overestimation of its seismic
Figure 1. Mechanical response of Northeast Japan to different boundary
conditions generated by the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. e indicates thestrain/strain rate.

ELASTIC AND INELASTIC DEFORMATION IN THE NKTZ
Crustal deformation is recorded on the Earth’s surface, and geodetic
techniques, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), are used to monitor
such deformation. Spatial decomposition of strain rate distributions based on
GPS data from the GNSS Earth Observation System (GEONET) before andafter the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake show preseismic contraction andpostseismic extension in the long wavelength component. This patternrepresents elastic deformation due to the earthquake release. Meanwhile,
persistent localized contraction in Northern NKTZ in the short wavelengthcomponent was revealed (Cover figure). The persistency of the localized
contraction suggests that such deformation reflects an inelastic processaccumulating over geological time. The short wavelength component is
consistent with geological studies, demonstrating the extraction of long-term
deformation from the short-term geodetic observation, and also providing a
new interpretation of inland strain concentration (Meneses-Gutierrez andSagiya, 2016). Nonetheless, detailed strain distribution and their mechanicalcharacteristics have not been fully resolved with the available data.

potential.
My analysis is the first to present a distinction between elastic andinelastic deformation in Central Japan. However, both studies are purely
kinematic and do not offer a quantitative physical approach to breaking down
the data. In the future, I would like to work toward providing reasonable
three-dimensional models considering different elastic properties of the crust.

Acknowledgements
This research was conducted in collaboration with professor Takeshi Sagiya of theDisaster Mitigation Research Center, Nagoya University, and Shutaro Sekine of the
ADEP. We are grateful to the Geospatial Information Agency of Japan for the GPS data
for this analysis.

References[1] Meneses-Gutierrez, A. and Sagiya, T., “Persistent inelastic deformation in central
Japan revealed by GPS observation before and after the Tohoku-oki earthquake,” Earthand Planetary Sci. Lett. 450, 366–371 (2016)[2] Meneses-Gutierrez, A, Sagiya, T. and Sekine, S. “Crustal deformation process in the
Mid-Niigata region of the Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone as observed by dense GPS
network before, during and after the Tohoku-oki earthquake,” J. Geophys. Res.: Solid
Earth, 123 (7), 6072–6085 (2018)

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 22

IAR Core FacultyCommittee

The IAR Core Faculty Committee is composed of the Institute Director, Deputy
Directors, Full-Time Faculty Members, and member of the clerical staff, who
promote the Institute’s activities, and make proposals to the IAR Committee.

Affiliation : Director of Nagoya IAR/ Professor of the Graduate School of Humanities
Research Interests : Ancient Greek History

Yoshiyuki
SUTO
Director

Research Project
My research interests include Aegean Archaeology，Ancient Greek History，and especially the study of contact
and interaction between Greek and Eg yptian culture in the Hellenistic period. As a member of Akoris
Archaeological Project I have been working in Middle Egypt for the purpose of elucidating the history of local
society under the Ptolemaic rule.

Affiliation : Deputy Director of Nagoya IAR/ Professor of the Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences
Research Interests : Molecular Plant Physiology，Phytohormone

IAR PEOPLE | IAR Core Faculty Committee

Hitoshi
SAKAKIBARA
Deputy Director

Research Project
My research interest is to understand how plants manage their growth and development under abiotic stressconditions，such as nitrogen limitation. Plant orchestrates a number of cues including phytohormone actions
and metabolic responses to coordinate its development and metabolism at a whole-body level. I am studying
molecular basis of this topic with focusing on nitrogen-dependent regulation of phytohormone biosynthesis
and signaling.

Affiliation : Deputy Director of Nagoya IAR/ Professor of the Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : condensed matter physics (experiment)

IchiroTERASAKI
Deputy Director

Research ProjectIchiro Terasaki synthesizes new materials，investigates their transport and magnetic properties，and develops
functions hidden there. His major research activity has been devoted to the thermoelectric properties oftransition-metal oxides including the layered cobalt oxides，and recently extended to giant nonlinear
conduction in strongly correlated systems such as conducting organic salts and layered ruthenates. His recent
interest extends to exotic magnetic materials such as room-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors andspin-liquid candidates.

Affiliation : Deputy Director of Nagoya IAR/ Professor of the Centre for Asian Legal Exchange
Research Interests : Political Sociology，Politics

HirokoTAKEDA
Deputy Director

23 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

Research Project
My research can be mapped out in an intersection of the following three major elements; political sociology,
gender and Japan/UK. Political Sociology is my disciplinary background. In particular，I developed a keeninterest in the studies on governmentality. As for gender，I have long been interested in gender issues and thecore of academic questions that I have continuously explored in my extant work--the ways in which the world of
the everyday life is linked with the state system --was formulated as an outcome of my effort to examine genderissues with reference to governmentality. Finally, Japan has been my primary source of case studies and recently，
I also started to explore the British cases.

Affiliation : Associate Professor at Nagoya IAR
Research Interests : Egyptian Archaeology，Pyramid，3D Survey

Yukinori
KAWAE
Full-Time Faculty

Research Project
My research interests lie in the field of Egyptian archaeology, particularly in 3D surveys of ancient megalithic
structures and excavations of ancient settlements. My academic career started the excavation of the Lost City of the
Pyramids at Giza. Soon after the introduction of 3D technology in Egyptian archaeology, I began conducting aninterdisciplinary research project to complete 3D surveys of pyramids. Recently, I expanded the collaborative research
to include a television production company as Open Innovation Project. My use of 3D data challenges theunprecedented empirical analysis approach to understanding the mystery of the pyramids’ construction.

Affiliation : Associate Professor at Nagoya IAR
Research Interests : Plant Physiology, Plant nutrients

SatomiKANNO
Full-Time Faculty

Research Project
My research interest is understanding plant growth adaptation mechanisms according to environmental
nutrients conditions. Plant senses internal and external ion level and controls the ion transport system tooptimize their growth. I am working on these mechanisms focusing on phosphate, one of the macronutrientsfor plant growth, by using molecular biology technics and imaging technologies to trace ions in the living
plants.

Atsushi
J. NISHIZAWA
Full-Time Faculty

Research Project
My research interest ranges from theoretical aspects of cosmological model that explains accelerating expansionof the Universe，to the theory of galaxy formation. To reveal such problems in the Universe，large astronomical
data obtained by telescope is used. Recently I am working on the photometric redshift that determines the
distance to galaxies. The redshift of galaxies are of particular importance for doing both cosmology andastronomy. I am also interested in the methods of data analysis including machine learning.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 24

IAR PEOPLE | IAR Core Faculty Committee

Affiliation : Designated Lecturer at Nagoya IAR
Research Interests : Observational Cosmology，Astronomy

IAR
Steering Committee

The IAR Steering Committee plan, discuss, and decide on the Institute’s
academic activities.

Affiliation : Trustee and Vice President of Nagoya University/ Professor of the Graduate School of
Medicine
Research Interests : Experimental Pathology，Tumor Biology

Masahide
TAKAHASHI
Steering Committee

Research Project
Our group has been studying the molecular mechanisms of cancer development and invasion. In particular，We
are focusing on the roles of Ret oncogene and Girdin family genes in cancer cells. We are also studying the roles ofthese genes in organogenesis including the development of the nervous system.

Affiliation : Professor of the Graduate School of Mathematics
Research Interests : Partial differential equations

IAR PEOPLE | IAR Steering Committee

Mitsuru
SUGIMOTO
Steering Committee

Research Project
Various phenomena of nature can be treated mathematically by describing them in the language of partial
differential equations (PDE). Through the analysis，I aim to extract new principles which comprehend concrete
phenomena. As a methodology of PDE，many properties of the solutions to PDE can be deduced from theircharacteristics，and I employ this idea to investigate quantitative properties of solutions like size，regularity，andso on. Simultaneously I proceed with the study of Fourier analysis as an important tool for such analysis.

Affiliation : Professor of the Graduate School of Medicine
Research Interests : Biochemistry，Glycobiology

Tetsuya
OKAJIMA
Steering Committee

Research Project
My research has focused on biochemical and biological analyses of O-glycan modification on glycoproteins.
Previous studies revealed that unique glycans such as O-fucose and O-GlcNAc regulate Notch signaling andNotch-dependent biological processes. Currently，I am investigating how O-glycan modification is coordinated tofine-tune Notch signal strength essential for developmental control and homeostasis. Given that Notch signaling
pathway is associated with many human diseases，elucidation of molecular mechanisms how O-glycans control
Notch activity will be of great pharmaceutical interest.

Affiliation : Professor of the Graduate School of Engineering/Director of Center for the Studies ofHigher Education
Research Interests : Photoresponsive polymer thin films

Takahiro
SEKI
Steering Committee

25 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

Research Project
Photoresponsive organic and polymeric materials are attracting much attention due to great potential in
next-generation photonics technologies. My major research interest is to study photoresponsive (mostly
photochromic) thin films of polymeric liquid crystals. The alignment control of liquid crystal that is essential inliquid crystal photonics can be achieved by irradiation with linearly polarized light to the surface photoresponisve
layer on a substrate or a free surface. Based on this phenomenon，we are extending the possibilities ofphotoalignment process for orientation control of various functional materials.

Affiliation : Professor of the Graduate School of Engineering/ Director of Institute of Nano-Life-Systems
Research Interests : nanobioscience，biomedical engineering

Yoshinobu
BABA
Steering Committee

Research Project
The research efforts in my laboratory have been focused on the development of nanobiodevices for biomedical
applications and healthcare，including single cancer cell diagnosis for cancer metastasis，circulating tumor cell(CTC) detection by microfluidic devices，nanopillar devices for ultrafast analysis of genomic DNA and microRNA，
nanopore devices for single DNA and microRNA sequencing，nanowire devices for exosome analysis，
single-molecular epigenetic analysis，AI-powered nano-IoT sensors，quantum switching intra vital imaging of iPS
cells and stem cells，and quantum technology-based cancer theranostics.

Affiliation : Professor of the Graduate School of Economics
Research Interests : History of Science and Technology

Steering Committee

Research Project
History of Science in the 17-18th century of France，especially on the relationship between the government
and academic institutions of science; Concept of "Economy" and its relationship with natural sciences in thelatter half of the 18th century

IAR
Visiting Professor & Designated Professor

Affiliation : Visiting Professor at Nagoya IAR/ Professor at Chubu University
Research Interests : Hiistory of Social Thoughts

TakahoANDO
Visiting Professor

Research Project

Research on History of Social Thoughts，especially on French Enlightenment and Liberalism.

Affiliation : Invited Professor
Research Interests : Medieval Japanese Culture and Texts

YasuroABE
Visiting Professor

Research Project

My research focuses on the religious texts of medieval Japan, emphasizing their context as objects ofreligious cultural heritage. I have strived to demonstrate how religious texts, images, and other objects
have been used, transmitted, and understood from the Middle Ages through the present day. Throughthe analysis of concrete examples—such as the cult of Prince Shōtoku, and various conceptions of the"sacred" in medieval Japan—I have demonstrated that these texts mutually interact not only with eachother, but also with external works of literature, performative arts, and iconography.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 26

IAR PEOPLE | IAR Steering Committee / Visiting Professor & Designated Professor

SayakaOKI

Affiliation : Visiting Associate Professor at Nagoya IAR/ Associate Prodessor at Nanzan University
Research Interests : International Economics

DapengCAI
Visiting Associate
Professor

Research Project

An increasing number of challenges facing humanity today，such as the reduction of the emission of thegreenhouse gases，or the protection of global commons，all require intensive cooperation by many
countries. My research aims at analyzing the international negotiation processes that are underlying theformation of the needed international cooperation. Besides the issue of emission reductions，I also
examine other issues that require international negotiations - in particular，those between the Northand the South - such as the protection of intellectual property rights，as well as the setting ofinvestment rules or production standards.

Affiliation : Visiting Associate Professor at Nagoya IAR
Research Interests : Plant Physiology, Zinc Biology

Miki
KAWACHIVisiting Associate
Professor

Research Project

IAR PEOPLE | IAR Visiting Professor & Designated Professor

My research mainly concerns the transport of micro-nutrients in living organisms. All organisms need elements
like zinc or manganese in very minute amounts, however, even a small excesses can be harmful. Specialized
transport proteins are the principal means of nutrient movement within and between cells. I am interested in
the structure of those proteins and how structural differences might affect their function. I am working withdiverse model organisms ranging from microbes to all the way to fruit trees.

Affiliation : Designated Professor at Nagoya IAR / Nagoya University Global Science Campus
Coordinator

Takaki
HAYASHI
Designated Professor

27 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

YLC
Program Faculty

YLC Faculty members are promising young researchers recruited under the
Nagoya University Young Leaders Cultivation Program (YLC Program).

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Letters
Research Interests : Mesoamerican archaeology

Akira
ICHIKAWA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project

Ichikawa Akira is an archaeologist. His research centers on the interactions in Prehispanic Southeastern
Mesoamerica，from a long-term perspective，the correlation between natural disasters (especially
volcanic eruption) and human society，and community-based archaeological practices. He is currently
director of the San Andrés and Cara Sucia archaeological projects. This project examines the social
process of Southeastern Mesoamerica (actually El Salvador) in different environmental settings from thePreclassic to the Postclassic period (ca. 600 B.C. - A.D. 1200) and clarifies the dating of the gigantic
eruption of Ilopango and its impact on the ancient society.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Cosmology with gravitational waves

Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project

Einstein's general relativity predicts propagation of space-time distortion，which is called “Gravitational
waves". The detection was finally made by Advanced-LIGO on September 14，2015，100 years after thegeneral relativity was published. One of the important benefits of analyzing GWs is that they carry“clean" information，since they interact with matter very weakly. This property allows us to directly
observe the very early Universe. I make theoretical predictions to extract information on the origin andhistory of the Universe using future gravitational wave experiments. I am also extending my research toinclude development of data analysis technique for upcoming experiments.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Radio Astronomy，High-Energy Astrophysics

Hidetoshi
SANO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project

To understand high-mass stars from birth to death is essential in exploring the origin of galaxies andhuman beings. Strong UV radiation from high-mass stars promotes the galaxy evolution. A supernova
explosion that signals the death of high-mass star ejects various elements into the interstellar space，
which is a process to produce elements consisting our bodies. Moreover，shock waves from the
explosion generate high-energy particles filling the interstellar space，so-called cosmic-rays. My research
themes are to explore the formation mechanism of high-mass stars and the origin of cosmic-rays byanalyzing the astronomical data taken at multi-wavelengths.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Engineering
Research Interests : Organic Chemistry，
Development of Catalyst

Takahiro
HORIBE
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project

Dr. Takahiro Horibe specializes in organic chemistry，and organometallic chemistry. He is particularlyinterested in the development of novel catalyses for increasing process efficiency，controlling reaction
selectivity，and reducing byproducts in organic reaction. Merging metal catalysts and charge transfer
interaction，he is developing novel catalysts for novel reaction and anomalous selectivity.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 28

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

SachikoKUROYANAGI

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Molecular biology

Chun
LI
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Tomohiro
ABE
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Study of axon regeneration is crucial for developing methods to restore the severed axons caused by accidents orsurgeries. Caenorhabditis elegans has recently emerged as a tractable model for studying regenerative responses
in neurons. Recent studies using C. elegans have revealed that JNK and p38 MAP kinase (MAPK) pathways areimportant for axon regeneration. I have been demonstrated that the C. elegans SVH-1 growth factor and its
receptor，SVH-2 tyrosine kinase，regulate axon regeneration via the JNK MAPK pathway. Now I aimed toinvestigate the upstream and downstream factors of these pathways to understand how these pathways areactivated and how they regulate axon regeneration.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of
Kobayashi Maskawa Institute (KMI)
Research Interests : elementary particle physics
Research Project
My interest lies in physics beyond the standard model of elementary particles. One of my research topics is themuon anomalous magnetic moment that shows a discrepancy between the standard model prediction and theobserved value. This discrepancy implies the existence of new particles coupling to muon. I have completed
analyzing a model with new leptophilic particles as a solution of this anomaly. I also have been working on
models for dark matter and the origin of the Higgs potential with focusing on various ongoing and plannedexperiments in future.

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Engineering
Research Interests : Condensed matter physics (theory)

ShingoKOBAYASHI
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Several interesting physical phenomena emerge in solids due to many-body effects of electrons. During recent years，
I have studied the physical properties of electrons with a non-trivial topological number in solids，which lead tonew physical phenomena beyond the conventional condensed matter physics. Here，the concept of topologicalinvariants is introduced from topology in mathematics. In three decades ago，the integer quantum Hall effect was
discovered as an example that the topology of electrons plays an important role. Triggered by the discovery of
topological insulators in 2000s，topology has become a new guiding principle in condensed matter physics.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Engineering
Research Interests : Micro-nano manipulation

MasaruTAKEUCHI
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
My research interests are micro-nano manipulation，microfluidics and optoelectronic devices for biologicalapplications. Especially，developments of small devices for three dimensional assembly of cell structures using
self-assembly process has been conducted. Micromanipulation devices using solid-liquid phase change were also
developed to handle single cells，or actuate small amount of liquid. The assembled 3D cell structures by thedeveloped devices will be used as in vitro models of our organs.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Letters
Research Interests : Anthropology，Area Studies

Mio
HORIE
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

29 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

Research Project
Since the Open-Door Policy，China's economic growth has brought new domestic population flow. The
developed coastal area has attracted many people from rural area because of widening regional economic gap，
both labor migration and women's chain-marriage migration from the peripheral area to the developed area isremarkable. The current population flow is one of the cross points of several issues which is important tounderstand modern China society. I focus on such changing mobility from one of the ethnic group named Lahu
who lives in southwestern China border and discuss how such population flow has changed the local way of life.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Medicine
Research Interests : Respiratory Medicine，Oncology

Kazuhide
SATO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths，and the cure rate of lung cancer is still under
20%，therefore，there is urgent need for new treatments. I aim to develop new innovative cancer therapy
with a concept “less toxic，more anti-tumor effect". Along with different approaches from conventional cancer
therapies，I have been studying about photo-activated cancer therapy in order to destroy only cancer cells
inside body. I would like to develop new technologies that could cause effects only on the cancers with amultidisciplined approach.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Particle Physics，Astrophysics

Tsutomu
FUKUDA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
A fundamental particle "neutrino" is a key for revealing the origin of the matter dominated universe. I havecarried out accelerator based neutrino experiments with nuclear emulsion detector. So far we provided the final
evidence of nu_mu -> nu_tau neutrino oscillation with tau neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam from
CERN in the OPERA experiment. Then I have established and am promoting a new experimental project(NINJA Experiment) to measure neutrino interactions precisely at J-PARC as the PI. Precise measurement of
neutrino-nucleus interactions is essential for observing the neutrino-CP violation which is an important hint
for matter-antimatter asymmetry in our universe.

Yuri
FUJII
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Hidenori
TAKEUCHI
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
I am working on the formation theory of planets and satellites in our solar system and also in extrasolar systems.
Planets form in gaseous disks called protoplanetary disks, which are the leftover of star formation. Recent
observations show wide variety of structures in protoplanetary disks including the clue of ongoing planet
formation. I perform magneto-/radiation hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the dynamics ofprotoplanetary disks and the manner of the gas flow onto a planet in the disk. These simulations provide theformation environments for planets and satellites. I am also interested in chemical evolution of protoplanetarydisks, modeling of circumplanetary disks, and orbital evolution of satellites.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Institute ofTransformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM)
Research Interests : Molecular biology in plant reproduction
Research ProjectFertilization between male and female gametes of the same species is fundamental for seed production andspecies maintenance in higher plants. My research interests are in species-specific male-female recognition
mechanisms，including prezygotic pollen tube guidance and postzygotic chromosome maintenance. I will
especially try to identify key factors involved in these processes. I finally aim to understand the species-specificmechanisms in plant reproduction，which could lead to technologies for generating useful hybrid plants.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Mathematics
Research Interests : Number theory

HenrikBACHMANN

Research Project

Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

I am interested in various subjects related to the theory of multiple zeta values and modular forms. In particular
I am studying multiple Eisenstein series，which can be seen as a mixture between classical Eisenstein series andmultiple zeta values. These objects also have a connection to q-analogues of multiple zeta values and I am
interested in their algebraic structure and connection to other areas in mathematics such as enumerative
geometry and combinatorics.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 30

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Astropysics，Planetary ScienceAffiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Cosmology，Weak Gravitational Lensing

Hironao
MIYATAKE
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
My research interests lie in observational cosmology. Cosmic acceleration discovered in the late 1990s is one of
the most mysterious phenomena in physics and astronomy，which indicates the existence of dark energy or themodification to general relativity. I have been working on exploiting weak lensing observables，the subtle
distortion in the shapes of distant galaxies due to massive foreground structures，to extract the nature of cosmic
acceleration from big imaging data taken by Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) at the Subaru Telescope. I am also
involved in upcoming international galaxy surveys such as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) andNASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute (KMI)
Research Interests : Particle Physics，Astroparticle Physics

ShingoKAZAMA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Despite the overwhelming evidence for dark matter from astronomical and cosmological indications at various
scales，a clear evidence of a particle which explains these observations remains absent. I'm involved in the
XENON project to search for the low-energy interactions of galactic dark matter with nuclei. The XENON
collaboration has built the XENON1T detector，the most sensitive detector ever built，but no clear evidencesof dark matter have been found. We are currently upgrading the XENON1T detector by enlarging the target
xenon mass from 2 to 6 tonnes. The new experiment will start its operation in 2019，and this will allows us to
explore promising parameter spaces towards a first discovery.

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Humanities
Research Interests : Ancient History，Classics

YukikoKAWAMOTO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
My research has focused on Roman architectural，cultural，and social history，using textual and archaeologicalevidence. My research project explores the designs of Roman gardens and how they influenced later European
gardens. It is believed that Roman gardens are the origin of formal gardens adorned with clipped trees (topiary)and plants arranged in geometrical patterns (e.g. Versailles). However，both archaeological and textual evidenceshow that Roman gardens seem to have aimed at a natural appearance. This project examines various types ofevidence and explores how the Roman gardens looked，and why people have started to consider Roman
gardens to be the origin of formal gardens.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute (KMI)
Research Interests : High energy physics，Flavor physics

TeppeiKITAHARA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
I am interested in searching for physics beyond the standard model through precision measurements of theproperties of standard model particles，and especially my main focus is on flavor physics. I am going to improve
the standard model predictions of B-meson decays and also investigate CP violation in rare kaon decays. I am
broadly interested in testable physics of various experiments，and I hope to stimulate interactions between
theory and experiment.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Science
Research Interests : Quantum gravity

Yuki
SATO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

31 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

Research Project
Modern physics incorporates Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics. The former associates gravity
with the bending of spacetime，and the latter explains characteristic properties of matters at short distances.
According to general relativity，the spacetime curves due to the existence of matters，and matters indicate
quantum characteristics at short distances. Therefore，gravity is supposed to show quantum mechanical effects，
and those effects would become important around the Planck scale. The theory that describes quantum effects ofgravity，quantum gravity，is my field of research. I mainly study discrete approaches to quantum gravity.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences
Research Interests : Plant Molecular Physiology，Biochemistry

Natsuki
TAKADATANAKA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Plants live in a frequently changing environment from which they cannot escape and have signaling mechanisms
to adapt to new conditions. Calcium，lipid and protein are involved in the signaling pathways. However，
limited information on signal transduction between different signaling systems is available. I focus on a new
type signal transducer PCaP1 which can convert Ca2+ signal to phospholipid signal on plasma membrane.
Thus I investigate PCaP1-related physiological processes，such as stomata closure and root hydrotropism，toreveal a novel mechanism to adapt a new environmental conditions.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Humanities
Research Interests : International Relations in 17-19th century East Asia

Yongchao
CHENG
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
By putting Joseon Korea as a mediator between Tokugawa Japan and Ming - Qing China，which have notestablished formal diplomatic relation in 17-19th centuries，I demonstrate and empirically analyze，that China
and Japan had mediated political connections，aiming to rebuild the history of East Asia by using the approachof global history. Instead of just adding up of several bilateral relations，such as Japan- Korea and KoreaChina，I am putting the historical pieces scattered in Chinese，Japanese，Korean documents together andconfronting simultaneously the trilateral relation of countries，to illuminate the entanglements and interactions
among early-modern East Asian countries.

Hiroki
FUJINO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Soon-Ki
HAN
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
My research topic is on the global properties of the infinite dimensional Teichmuller spaces. In particular，I am
mainly interested in degeneration phenomena of Riemann surfaces on the boundaries of the Teichmuller spaces.
The Teichmuller space is a space which parametrizes all quasiconformal deformations of a given surface. If thegiven surface is of finite type，the degenerations to nodal surfaces appear as a dense subset of the boundary.
However，in the case of infinite type surfaces，various degeneration phenomena are obtained besides thedegenerations to nodal surfaces.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Institute of Transformative
Bio-Molecules (ITbM)
Research Interests : Plant stomata development

Research Project
Plant stomata are cellular valves surrounded by a pair of guard cells that impact plant growth，sustenance，and
atmospheric environment. Stomatal stem cells are produced and transiently amplified on the leaf surface，and
their stem cell activity is terminated before differentiation. I aim to understand the direct roles of transcription
factors in a dynamic alteration of gene expression that is responsible for stomatal differentiation especially inmaintenance and termination of stomatal lineage stem cells.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Environmental Studies
Research Interests : Human Geography, Areal Studies

Ai
SUGIE
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Research Project
Bangladeshi Migrants in Saudi Arabia and transnational networks of Islamic Revival. This study explores thesocio-spatial structure and socio-economic backgrounds of Bangladeshi migrants in Makkha and examines theirsocial-cultural impacts on Islamic revival movements in the city and their hometowns in Bangladesh. Research
2: Pluralistic economy and alternative development. This study discusses the possibility of an alternative
development based on a pluralistic economic system that reciprocity among people and between human andnature are prioritised over market economy success. Research 3: Water resources problems in Rohingya refugee
camp areas in Bangladesh.

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 32

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

Affiliation : Designated Assistant Professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Mathematics
Research Interests : complex analysis，function theory

Yumi
BAMBA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

KazuyaFUJIMOTO
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty

Yoko
MIZUTA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Koji
MURATA
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Division for Integrated Studies,
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research
Research Interests : Solar Physics, Space Weather
Research Project
Solar eruptions, such as "solar flares" and ''coronal mass ejections (CMEs)" are sometimes impact to spaceenvironment around the Earth. However, onset mechanisms and propagation processes of those phenomena are
not yet revealed. Therefore, our ability of "space weather forecast", which predict disturbances of spaceenvironment near the Earth, does not satisfy requirements from modern society, which rapidly promote spacedevelopment. I aim to understand the onset and propagation processes of solar eruptions by comparison ofvarious observational data and numerical modelings.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Department of Applied Physics,
Graduate School of Engineering
Research Interests : Condensed matter physics (theory)
Research ProjectNon-equilibrium phenomena emerge in various length-scales ranging from small atomic and molecular clusters
to fluid dynamics in our daily life. I have been interested in universal aspects of non-equilibrium phenomena,and have recently studied relaxation dynamics, wave and vortex turbulence, and chaos in ultracold quantum
gases. The system is a vapor of several atomic species at very low temperature, and is recognized as one of thepromising playgrounds for studying such non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum many-body systems.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Institute of Transformative
Bio-Molecules (ITbM), Nagoya University
Research Interests : Molecular biology, Plant reproduction
Research ProjectIn the flowering plants, sexual reproduction occurs in a flower. In the flower, pollen lands on the female tissue,
and pollen germinates pollen tube and deliver the sperm to the egg cell. After that, fertilization occurs. During
this process, it is necessary to fertilize without waste both males (pollen tubes) and females (ovules) to produce
more seeds in nature, but the whole picture of such precise plant fertilization mechanism is unclear. To
understand this mechanism, two-photon imaging, expression and phylogenic analyses will be performed. I
developed deep-and live-imaging technics using two-photon microscopy. The pollen tube mediated genemodification technology is also developed.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Institute for Advanced Research /Graduate School of Humanities
Research Interests : History, Byzantine Studies, Diplomatics
Research Project
I am interested in various subjects related to Byzantium, the Medieval Roman Empire (ca. 4th Century to1453). My current research explores social functions of byzantine documents issued by emperors and state
officials in the 13th and 14th centuries. In particular I am investigating to what extent written documents were
utilized to regulate relationships between Byzantium and other polities.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Graduate School of Mathematics
Research Interests : Representation theory, category theory

Aaron
CHAN
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

33 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

Research ProjectMy field of research is the representation theory of algebras (and related structures). An algebra is a vector spaceequipped with a linear associative multiplication map, meaning that one can perform operations like "addition","scalar multiplication", as well as "vector multiplication". An example is the set of matrices over a fixed field of agiven size, equipped with the usual matrix multiplication. Representation theory studies "linear approximations"of algebras, i.e. vector spaces equipped with linear transformations on itself that are compatible with thealgebra's multiplications.

Claudia
MARTINEZCALEDERON
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)AngelaMENESESGUTIERREZ
Young Leaders
Cultivation Program
Faculty(YLC)

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Institute for Space–EarthEnvironmental Research
Research Interests : Magnetosphere and Space Plasma Physics
Research Project
My research project focuses on VLF/ELF emissions, their physical properties, generation and propagation.
Currently my focus is on ground and satellite simultaenous and conjugated VLF events. I'm also an active
member of the VERSIM workshop group and co-founder of their Journal Club.

Affiliation : Designated Assistant professor at Nagoya IAR and Disaster Mitigation Research Center
Research Interests : Crustal deformation
Research ProjectI study crustal deformation through geodetic observations (Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS),
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), etc.), focusing on the analysis of earthquake-related
processes. I am interested in distinguishing strain accumulation due to elastic processes in the Earth, released in
the form of large earthquakes, from inelastic processes which are irreversible and cause strain to accumulate overgeological time.

IAR PEOPLE | YLC Program Faculty
March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 34

I
INFORMATIONThe Nagoya University Lecture 2019
The Nagoya University Lecture 2019, titled “Excavation Roman
Civilization," was held at the University's Toyoda Auditorium on
September 14, 2019 co-organized by Nagoya University and theChunichi Shinbun. This lecture series is one of the essential lecture
events organized by Nagoya University. It is designed, as a publicl e c t u re , to p ro v i d e c i t i ze n s w i t h o p p o r t u n i t i e s to l e a r nstate-of-the-art scientific knowledge from outstanding researchers
in their respective academic disciplines. Lectures were awarded thetitle "Nagoya University Lecture," the University's most prestigious
title, together with a recognition plaque. This year, the lectureshipwas awarded to Dr. Masanori Aoyagi, an honorary professor of The
University of Tokyo. He also won the Medal with Purple Ribbon(2006), The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star(2017), and Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana from Italy for
his achievements in the discovery of Roman culture. The 2019
Nagoya University Lecture began with an opening address by
Nagoya University President Seiichi Matsuo. In the first half of thelecture session, Dr. Yoshiyuki Suto (Director of Institute forAdvanced Research (IAR), Nagoya University) delivered a lecture
titled “Introductory Encomium of Dr. Aoyagi and His Archaeological
Activities in Italy,” and introduced Dr. Masanori Aoyagi’s work. In
the second half of the lecture session, Dr. Aoyagi gave a lecture
titled “50 years of excavation in Italy.” He spoke about the hard andlong road to his discovery of historic sites of Pompeii and Sicily, andthe importance of archaeological monuments. More than 900
people attended the event.

Activities & News
new institute. Nagoya NAIAS aims to promote leading state-of-the-art
research and the development young leaders in science.

12

3
1. Poster, 2. Dr. Hiroshi Ooguri at the Celebration symposium, 3. Committee
member of NAIAS and guests

UBIAS 2019 Topic of the Year workshop"Migration and Cultural Spaces"
On November 21–22, 2019, Nagoya IAR held a two-day-long international workshop jointly with the Waseda Institute for Advanced
Study (WIAS) and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities
and Social Sciences, Nanjing University Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Dr. Aoyagi (left) at the Lectureship award ceremony

Celebration symposium for thefoundation of NAIAS
Since October 1, 2019, the Institute for Advanced Research(IAR), the Kobayashi Masukawa Institute (KMI), and the Institute ofTransformative Institute Bio-Molecules (ITbM) have been consolidated into a new organization as Nagoya University Institute forAdvanced Study (NAIAS). The celebration symposium was held at the
University's Sakata Hirata Hall on November 15, 2019. Dr. Hiroshi
Ooguri, Director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematicsof the Universe (Kavli IPMU), gave a commemorative lecture for the

35 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

1

2

3

1. Presenters in the workshop, 2. Agreement for the research exchange, 3. Dr. Sutoat the workshop

I.A.R. INFORMATIONin Humanities and Social Sciences (IAS), at the Yifu Building on Nanjing University’s Gulou Campus. Twenty-one speakers from the fieldof humanities and social sciences gave talks related to the UBIAS 2019
Topic of the Year “Migration and Cultural Spaces” and exchanged
interdisciplinary ideas.Nagoya IAR and Nanjing University IAS concluded an agreement to become partners in research exchange.

UBIAS 2019 Topic of the Year event “Migrations: Movement of People, Ideas and Goods"
On October 16–17, 2019, The Waseda Institute for Advanced
Study (WIAS) and Nagoya IAR co-organized the UBIAS Topic of theyear spin-off event "Migrations: Movement of People, Ideas andGoods." The symposium was managed by young WIAS research
fellows who are expected to be the next leaders in academia.
Sixteen speakers presented their excellent works and engaged in
active discussions.

14, 2019, titled “On the border between Speciality andInterdisciplinary research.” Seven researchers were selected fromthe natural science and engineering field.

Academic Salon, Discussion with Dr. Noyori
The “Live till night: real-time discussion with Dr. Noyori,”
starting from 2017, is a salon where participants can freely discussvarious topics with Dr. Ryoji Noyori, one of the Nobel Laureates in
Chemistry in 2001. In the academic year 2019, the fifth session of
the Academic Salon was held. The topic was, "What is a scholar? To
be an authentic specialist.” A report compiled by the participants isavailable on the IAR website. n addition to this, there was a specialsalon organized at National University of Mongolia in August. 10
outstanding young researchers in Mongolia participated anddiscussed about the future of the Mogolia and the world.

Dr. Noyori with participants
Workshop at WIASIAR Symposium

National Geographic Grants Seminar
National Geographic Society, a global nonprofit organization
based in the United States, was established in 1888. The NatGeo
provides research grants for researchers, explorers andphotographers. Mr. Jey Lee, director of the Asia office, introduced
grants for researchers in Asian countries. Dr. Yukinori Kawae(Associate professor of Nagoya IAR), who was selected as an
Emerging Explorer by National Geographic Society in 2016, gave alecture titled “Structural analysis of Ancient Egyptian pyramids withthe latest technology.”

All presenters in the panel discussion

IAR Symposiums are aimed at communicating the established,novel and cutting-edge research of Nagoya University to all of its
members. We set two different fields: literature and social science,and natural science and engineering. The first IAR Symposium inthe literature and social science field was held on June 13, 2019,
titled “Challenge.” Eight professors selected as representatives ofeach faculty gave a lecture on their respective specialty. The
symposium on natural science and engineering was held on January

Mr. Jey Lee, director of the Asia office

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 36

INFORMATION

Activities & News2019 Young Leaders Cultivation Program

YLC Salon

The Young Leaders Cultivation (YLC) Program is a strategic
program of Nagoya IAR based on the premise that it is crucial tosecure an appropriate quantity and quality of young researchers,in order to sustain the development of outstanding education andresearch in the future. Nagoya IAR recruits and trains young faculty
members regularly and systematically. In academic year 2019, Dr.
Ai Sugie (Grad. Sch. of Environmental Studies), Dr. Yumi Bamba(Grad. Sch. of Earth and Planetary Science), Dr. Kazuya Fujimoto(Grad. Sch. of Engineering), Dr. Yoko Mizuta (Institute ofTransformative Bio-Molecules), Dr. Koji Murata (Grad. Sch. of
Humanities), Dr. Aaron Chan (Grad. Sch. of Mathematics), Dr.
Claudia Martinez-Calderon (Grad. Sch. of Earth and Planetary
Science) and Dr. Angela Meneses-Gutierrez (Disaster Mitigation
Research Center) were newly employed as designated assistantprofessors of the YLC program.

The YLC Salon was launched in 2019 with the aim of expanding
YLC members’ knowledge beyond their own area of expertise. Two
professors were invited to this salon and gave lectures on theirlatest research. At the first YLC Salon held on May 21, 2019, Dr.
Riccardo Olivito (Prof. of Scuola Alti Studi Lucca) gave a talk titled“Between private and public." The second salon was held on July
31, 2019, at which Dr. Kazuhiko Kume (Prof. of Nagoya City
University) discussed “Frontiers of Sleep Research."

YLC Seminar
The YLC seminar is aimed at providing members with
opportunities to understand the research interests of each YLC
member, in order to assist interdisciplinary collaboration between
members. The 20th YLC seminar was held on July 1, 2019. Dr.
Tsutomu Fukuda (YLC Assistant Professor of Nagoya IAR / Grad. Sch.
of Science) discussed “A particle detector named ‘Nuclear
Emulsion’— Counterattack of analog devices,” while Dr. Hidenori
Takeuchi (YLC Assistant Professor of Nagoya IAR / Institute ofTransformative Bio-Molecules) talked about “Understanding andmanipulation of species-specific mechanisms in plant reproduction.” The 21st YLC seminar was held on December 18, 2019. Dr.
Koji Murata (Grad. Sch. of Humanities) talked about “Painted
Official Documents on Walls of Churches in the Late Byzantine
Empire (1261–1453).” Dr. Satomi Kanno (Associate Professor of
Nagoya IAR / Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules) talked
about “Imaging Analysis of Plant Nutriment in Living Plants—How
do plants absorb and translocate Phosphorus ? ”

Dr. Olivito in the YLC Salon

IAR Freshmen Lecture Series
Targeting first-year students of the University, this lecture
series includes lectures delivered by members of the Academy,
IAR Faculty members, IAR Fellows, and researchers of Nagoya
University. It was aimed at communicating the fun of academic
research. In the academic year 2019, the following 14 lectures
were given:´$UHFKHPLFDOO\UHDFWLQJPROHFXOHV¶YLVLEOH·"µProf. Akiyoshi Hishikawa（Research Center for Material Science）
2.“The research history of particle physics,”
Prof. Makoto Kobayash（Director of the Kobayashi Maskawa Institute,2008 Nobel Laureate in Physics）

3.“Creating enzymes: The boundary between chemistry and biology,”
Prof. Yoshito Watanabe（Grad. Sch. of Science/Vice President）
4.“The dark universe,”
Prof. Naoshi Sugiyama（Grad. Sch. of Science/Deputy Director of Nagoya IAR）
5.“The present in historical studies: Excavate the Hellenism civilization,”
Prof. Yoshiyuki Suto（Grad. Sch. of Letters）
6.“How to use contemporary economics,”
Prof. Jiro Nemoto（Grad. Sch. of Economics）
7.“Fascination with an introduction to the history of thought,”
Prof. Takaho Ando （Chuo University / Sixth Director of Nagoya IAR）
8.“To analyze democracy,”Prof. Hiroko Takeda（Grad. Sch. of Law, Deputy Director of Nagoya IAR）
9.“Children in Islam: Different cultures seen from education,”
Prof. Mina Hattori （Grad. Sch. of Education and Human Development）

The 20th YLC seminar

37 | IAR LETTER | March 2020

10.“Science starts from seeing,”
Prof. Sumio Iijima（Meijo University/Distinguished Invited Professor of Nagoya University）

I.A.R. INFORMATION

11.“The huge puzzle of the brains of tiny animals,”Prof. Ikue Mori（Grad. Sch. of Sciences）
12.“How is the brain formed? Research on cell development,”
Prof. Takaki Miyata （Grad. Sch. of Medicine）
13.“Genome breeding to solve the food crisis,”
Prof. Makoto Matsuoka（Grad. Sch. of Bioagricultural Sciences）
14.“Development of a terahertz-wave source and application
for non-destructive inspection,” Prof. Kodo Kawase（Grad. Sch. of Engineering）

IAR Freshmen Lecture Series

Nagoya IAR, Short-term Fellowship Program
In order to facilitate international scientific cooperation, thisprogram supports short research visits of overseas researchers(max. four weeks), including related activities such as holding a
symposium. In the academic year 2019, five proposals were selected for this program. The first, Dr. Katsutoshi Shimizu (Prof. of Grad.
Sch. of Economics) invited Dr. Kim Cuong Ly (Prof. of University of
Nottingham) and organized Dr. Ly’s lectures titled “New Financial
Regulations in Global Financial Markets." The second proposal
came from Dr. Atsushi Natsume (Prof. of Grad. Sch. of Medicine).
He invited Dr. Gary S. Goldberg (Prof. of Rowan University), Dr.
Julie Rayes (Prof. of University of Birmingham), and Dr. Song Fan(Prof. of Sun Yat-sen University), and organized the NLS seminar“Cell Communication Disorders leading to Cancer and Other
Diseases.” Dr. Goldberg discussed the topic “PDPL is a culprit and atarget for cell communication disorders leading to cancer andother diseases." Dr. Rayes talked about “Platelet ITAM receptors in
inflammation and vascular integrity,” while Dr. Song Fan discussed"Pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor SAHA promotes antitumor
efficacy of B7-H3-specific CAR T cells in solid tumors in vitro and ex
vivo." The third proposal was from Dr. Ryo Kohsaka (Prof. of Grad.
Sch. of Environmental Studies). He invited Dr. Cornelia B. Krug
(Prof. of University of Zurich) and Dr. Manfred Klein (Director of
BfN). Dr. Kohsaka organized Future earth symposium. In the symposium, Dr. Krug lectured “SDGs and the future of Earth-related
activities in Europe,” and Dr. Klein gave talk about the topic. The
fourth proposal was from Dr. Takatoshi Kiba (Associate Prof. ofGrad. Sch. of Life Science and Agriculture), who invited Dr. Gabriel
Krouk. Dr. Krouk talked about “Frontiers in plant environmental
response research: local signaling, long-distance communication,and memory for developmental plasticity” in international symposiums and workshops on plant nutritional responses. The fifth wasfrom Dr. Kentaro Takagi (Associate Prof. of Grad. Sch. of Engineering), who invited Dr. Michael Sinapius (Prof. of Braunschweig Technical University) and organized Dr. Sinapius‘s lecture.

Foreign PI Fellowship Program
The Foreign Principal Investigator (PI) Fellowship Program is a
program inviting excellent researchers from foreign countries withoutstanding research achievements for three-to-four-months’
fellowship, to promote the University's academic research. In theacademic year 2019, Dr. Guy Le Lay (Prof. of Aix-Marseille University) and Dr. Ueli Grossniklaus (Prof. of University of Zurich), wereselected for this fellowship. While they were visiting Nagoya
University, they discussed collaborative research with PIs at Nagoya
University. They also contributed to the education of young
researchers by giving advice and lectures. Dr. Lay gave a lecture
titled “ITER: The fusion project implemented in Cadarache, France,"a n d D r. G ro s s n i k l a u s
gave a seminar titled"The mechanical basis
for the snapping of theVenus flytrap, Darwin's
most wonderful plant in
Dr. Grossniklaus
the world.”
Dr. Guy Le Lay

AwardsDr. Ichiro Terasaki (Professor of Grad. Sch. of Science/ Deputy
Direc tor of Nagoya IAR) won the Academic Award of the
Thermoelectrics Society of Japan (Jan. 2019).
Dr. Kazuhide Sato (YLC Assistant Professor of Nagoya IAR/ Graduate
School of Medicine) won the Research Award, Japanese Society for
Photomedicine and Photobiology (Aug. 2019), the President’s Award,
Japan Society for Laser Surgery and Medicine (Oct. 2019), the ResearchAward, Nagoya Univer sit y Medic al A s so ciation (Jan. 2020) and
Wakashachi Award, AICHI Prefecture (Jan.2020).

Dr. Masahide Takahashi (Pr o f e s s o r o f G r a d u a t e S c h o o l o f
Medicine) won the Medical Award of The Japan Medical Association(Nov. 2019).

Dr. Hidetoshi Sano ( YLC A s sis t ant Profes sor of Nagoya IAR /Graduate School of Science) won the Nagoya University Ishida Award(Nov. 2019).

Tsutomu Fukuda (YLC Assistant Professor of Nagoya IAR/ Graduate
School of Science) won the Konica Minolta Photographic Science
Encouragement Award (Jul. 2019).

March 2020 | IAR LETTER | 38

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH, NAGOYA UNIVERSITY
Telephone. +81-52-788-6051 Facsimile. +81-52-788-6151 E-mail. nu-iar@adm.nagoya-u.ac.jp
http://www.iar.nagoya-u.ac.jp/