Present Status of Research Center for Molecular Thermodynamics

Akira Inaba

Research activities at the Research Center for Molecular Thermodynamics in this year are reported here. Professor Kizashi Yamaguchi was retired from the Steering Committee on March 31, 2007. Research Associate Naoki Sakisato left our Center on March 31, 2007. Dr. Daisuke Takajo was appointed as Assistant Professor as of April 1, 2007. Dr. Lan Xiaozheng joined us as a Research Associate on April 1, 2007.

The member of the Steering Committee for our Center consists of Professors Koichi Fukase (natural product chemistry), Toshio Kasai (reaction dynamics), Yasuhiro Nakazawa (solid state physical chemistry), Takahiro Sato (macromolecular science), Hitoshi Watarai (analytical chemistry), and myself (structural thermodynamics). The staff members as of December 1, 2007 are as follows:

The position marked with * belongs to the Physical Chemistry Area of the Chemistry Course, Graduate School of Science. The list of students is as follows:

Graduate Students / Doctor Course:

YAMASHITA, Satoshi*

Graduate Students / Master Course:

OKADA, Mitsuhiro

KUBOTA, Osamu*

SUZUKI, Haru

HARA, Koji*

YAMAGISHI, Masakazu*

ARAI, Shin-ichirow

INOUE, Yusuke*

IWASAKI, Yoshiki*

OKADA, Yugo*

CAMACHO, Oscar

SHIMADA, Kazumasa

HINO, Kosei*

HIRAHARA, Ritsuo*

MARUOKA, Toshikazu

Undergraduate Students:

TOKORO, Nozomi*

NODA, Keisuke

NODA, Masateru

MORIURA, Tomoya*

In accordance with the Program for Visiting Scientists from Foreign Countries, we accepted Dr. Jan Krawczyk (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kraków in Poland, from January 9 to March 20, 2007), Prof. Qi Wang (Zhejiang University in China, from July 2 to August 30, 2007), Dr. Christoph Meingast (Institute für Festkörperphysik in Germany, from September 19 to October 18, 2007), and Dr. Yoshikata Koga (University of British Columbia in Canada, from November 2, 2007). The research projects that we shared are “Thermodynamic Studies of Solid State Polymorphism of Some Organic Glass Formers” with Dr. Jan Krawczyk, “Molecular Dynamics of Surface Adsorbed Molecules” with Prof. Qi Wang, and “Thermal Property of Solids by Precise Measurement of Expansivity” with Dr. Christoph Meingast. Dr. Yoshikata Koga is working with us on “Measurements of Higher-Derivatives of Gibbs Energy”.

The papers presented in International/National Conferences as well as those published in 2006/2007 are listed in separate pages. Details of our research activities can also be found at URL: http://www.chem.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp/lab/micro/index.html.en.