Present Status of Research Center for Molecular Thermodynamics

Akira Inaba

We are pleased to inform all the colleagues that our present Center will be renewed as of April 1, 2009 to start another ten years with a new name of “Research Center for Structural Thermodynamics”. The first institute “Chemical Thermodynamics Laboratory” was founded in 1979 in the occasion when Professor Shuzo Seki retired. It was followed by “Microcalorimetry Research Center” in 1989 and then by the present Center in 1999. Although the organization was slightly changed every ten years, our basic idea is still unchanged. In fact, the common Japanese word (or Chinese character) existing in the name among those four institutes is “Heat”. As Albert Einstein mentioned, we believe that “Thermodynamics is the only physical theory of universal content that within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts will never be overthrown”. It must have unlimited possibilities to uncover the truths of science, particularly in the area of Material Science and Life Science.

Here, as usual, research activities at the Research Center for Molecular Thermodynamics for the last year are reported.

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 January 5, 2009 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*

UNO, Mayumi*

SUZUKI, Haru

YAMAGISHI, Masakazu*

Graduate Students / Master Course:

ARAI, Shin-ichirow

INOUE, Yusuke*

IWASAKI, Yoshiki*

OKADA, Yugo*

CAMACHO, Oscar

SHIMADA, Kazumasa

HINO, Kosei*

HIRAHARA, Ritsuo*

MARUOKA, Toshikazu

DOI, Akiyoshi*

TOKORO, Nozomi*

NODA, Keisuke

NODA, Masateru

MORIURA, Tomoya*

Undergraduate Students:

KOMOIKE, Takahiro

KONDO, Takemi

NAKAYAMA, Kengo*

FUKUOKA, Shuhei*

In accordance with the Program for Visiting Scientists from Foreign Countries, we accepted Dr. Yoshikata Koga (University of British Columbia in Canada, November 2, 2007 – February 29, 2008 and also October 1 – Novemebr 29, 2008) and Dr. Piotr M. Zieliński (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kraków in Poland, from March 4 to August 29, 2008). The research projects that we shared are “Measurements of Higher-Derivatives of Gibbs Energy” with Dr. Yoshikata Koga and “Thermodynamic Studies on Molecule-Based Magnets” with Dr. Piotr M. Zieliński.

The papers presented in International/National Conferences as well as those published in 2007/2008 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.