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Published: March 15th 2007
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Kazusa Akademia Hall
A big lake in front of the hall I was very honoured to be selected by Mitsui Chemicals to take part in the Mitsui International Symposium on Catalysis Science 2007. The symposium was held in the Kazusa Akademia Hall (in Chiba Prefecture, Japan) on 14th and 15th of March. Besides me, 2 NUS applied chem students were also selected. They were my applied chem juniors Victor and Mingxian. The 3 of us were chosen through an essay contest. (Mingxian wrote about the world of polymers. Victor and I wrote about the works of Prof Grubbs, a 2005 Nobel laureate in Chemistry.)
We arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport in the early morning on 13th March (Tue), and we spent one day exploring Tokyo. (Refer to my previous post.) In the evening, we checked into Okura Chiba Hotel. (The hotel was arranged by Mitsui Chemicals.) Next morning (14th Mar), a bus fetched us from the hotel and transported us to the Kazusa Akademia Hall. The hall was situated in the peaceful countryside and I like the modern and simple architecture of the hall. (It looks very "zen". Haha.)
The symposium started at 10am, and we listened to the lectures of two Nobel prize laureates in Chemistry - Prof
Kazusa Akademia Hall 2
The entrance of the hall Jean-Marie Lehn (1987 laureate) and Prof Richard Schrock (2005 laureate). Their researches were indeed ground-breaking and innovative, and I was very impressed with the works that they have done. At noon, we went for lunch in a ballroom on the other side of the Kazusa Akademia Hall. After lunch, we returned to the auditorium for another series of lectures. Prof Kricheldorf from U. Hamburg, Prof Masuda from Kyoto U., and Dr Fujita from Mitsui talked about their works in the field of catalysis.
At 3:30pm, we went for a short coffee break. During the coffee break, the 3 of us from NUS as well as a group of Japanese high school students managed to approach Prof Schrock and Prof Grubbs (the two 2005 Nobel laureates) to get their autographes and have a short chat. Prof Grubbs sounded delighted when he knew that we are from Singapore, because he just visited Singapore in January to give a talk in NTU. He told us that he would be coming to Singapore again at the end of this year or the start of next year. While we were talking to Prof Grubbs and Prof Schrock, a big group of reporters and cameramen
Kazusa Akademia Hall 3
Travellators linking the entrance and the lobby surrounded us and kept taking photos. (On the next day, I was told that I appeared on a Japanese national newspaper together with Prof Schrock and Prof Grubbs. LOL.)
After the coffee break, we returned to the auditorium and witnessed the "2007 Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award" ceremony. 2 awards were given to 2 chemists under the age of 45 - Dr Hou from RIKEN and Prof Fu from MIT. 2 "awards of encouragement" were given to 2 chemists under the age of 35 - Dr Terao from Osaka U. and Prof Chan from City U. of Hong Kong. After the award ceremony, each of the 4 award holders gave a short lecture on their researches.
After the lectures, we proceeded to the ballroom for a grand banquet. When we entered the ballroom, we were amazed. The variety, quantity and quality of the dishes were astonishing. Numerous Japanese and Western style dishes were served, including sushi, sashimi, soba, miso soup, tempura, cold cuts, salads, steaks, lobsters, pasta, etc etc. I really loved the tempura and the seafood. It was so oiishi!!!! Of course, the highlight of the banquet was not only the food. During the banquet we managed
to approach the top people in Mitsui Chemicals, the governor of Chiba prefecture, the mayor of Ichihara City, Prof Schrock, Prof Grubbs, representatives from A*Star (Agency of Science, Technology & Research, Singapore) and EDB (Economic Development Board, Singapore), famous scientists from Japan, Italy and USA, and many other interesting people. We chatted with them and they were all very friendly (especially the Japaneses, who kept asking us to come back to Japan again in the future).
On the next day (15th Mar), we went to the Kazusa Akademia Hall again for another series of lectures. Prof Grubbs was the first speaker, followed by Prof Nozaki from U. of Tokyo, Mr Tanaka from Mitsubishi Chemical, Prof Cavallo from U. Salerno, Dr Stevens from Dow Chemical, and Prof Jordon from U. Chicago. The symposium officially ended at 5pm, and we left the Kazusa Akademia Hall feeling impressed and inspired by the ground-breaking works of the various chemists. We were very grateful to Mitsui Chemicals' hospitality and excellent effort to make this symposium a success.
After the conference, Victor left Tokyo and returned to Singapore on 16th Mar (Fri), while Mingxian and I decided to stay for 2 more days to
explore other parts of Tokyo. Refer to my next posts for my Tokyo exploration!
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