Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Greetings from the Dean of Graduate School and Faculty

	The Importance of Curiosity and Awareness
	Head of Graduate School and Faculty of Science Shinichi Okoshi (Professor, Department of Chemistry )

The research fields of Graduate School of Science and School of Science cover the microscopic scale (elementary particles, atoms, and molecules), the macroscopic scale (cells and living organisms), the interior of the earth, the polar regions, the solar system, galaxies, and the farthest reaches of the universe. It also covers the long time span from the Big Bang to the creation of the universe, past, present, and future. We are all fascinated by the unsolved mysteries of the natural world and desire to know them. The Graduate School of Science and the Faculty of Science are in pursuit of the answers to these questions with curiosity. We believe that a person's intuition, unaffected by anything, can get to the essence of things. We believe that the deep knowledge and keen insight of the faculty and students of the Graduate School of Science and School of Science, combined with their intuition, will lead to new discoveries. The discoveries and the science and technology that are discovered may also be useful in people's daily lives. Scientific research has the potential to lead to the cornerstones of advanced fields such as drug discovery, materials, AI, Beyond 5G, and quantum technology, and has in fact produced many patents and intellectual property. For example, Professor Kikunae Ikeda (1864-1936), who became a professor of Department of Physics at Tokyo Imperial University in 1901, conducted basic research on the physics of physics and discovered in 1907 the main ingredient of umami seasoning, L monosodium glutamate, the main ingredient of umami seasonings widely used in households today. Professor Ikeda is regarded as one of Japan's ten greatest inventors. The professor's office that Professor Ikeda used when he retired is still in use today. Climate change caused by rising _CO2 concentrations threatens the future of humankind. I believe that scientific research will be of great help in such global-scale crises. In fact, it was Dr. Yoshiro Manabe (Ph.D. 1958), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021, who predicted climate change _{caused by} CO2. In order for us humans to better manage our planet, we need to solve many global-scale problems. We believe that science is indispensable for this purpose. This Fiscal Year Plan, the TAO telescope of The University of Tokyo's Atacama Observatory (TAO) Plan will finally begin full-scale operation. New discoveries will be made in astronomy.

It is the university students and graduate students who are currently studying and working hard to solve global problems as well as to reveal the truth of all things in the universe. First of all, it is important to acquire a high level of expertise in each research field. I believe that it is important for students with this high level of expertise to gain "insights" by interacting with students of other specialties.

As Dean of the Graduate School of Science, I would like to create a stable environment to raise the level of expertise of researchers in the Graduate School of Science and School of Science to a higher level, and to strongly promote the creation of an environment where various sensibilities can be exchanged through international exchange, interdisciplinary exchange, industry-academic exchange, and gender equality in order to provide opportunities for "awareness" to be realized. We will continue to promote the development of an environment where various sensibilities can be exchanged through international exchange, interdisciplinary exchange, industry-academic exchange, and gender equality.

Published in Faculty of Science News May 2023