Dr. Jean-Christophe Auffray (Counsellor for Science and Technology) and Mr. Cédric Guillerme (Attaché for Science and Technology) of the Embassy of France in Japan visited NAIST on January 25^th and 26^th, 2018.
On the first day, the delegation visited the Graduate School of Materials Science (GSMS) for meetings with Prof. Tsuyoshi Kawai (Vice Dean) and others. This day’s visit also included the observation of a joint thesis defense with Paul Sabatier University, as well as a GSMS facility tour. Later, Prof. Jun Ohta (Dean) invited the delegation for an additional meeting, joined by Prof. Masakazu Nakamura and other screening committee members.
The following day, Prof. Kiyomi Kakiuchi (Executive Director and Vice President), Assoc. Prof. Masato Miyake, and DGE Director Sachi Ando welcomed the delegation and exchanged information on collaboration between NAIST and universities and research institutions in France.
After the courtesy visit, the delegation first visited the Imaging-based Computation Biomedicine Laboratory (Prof. Yoshinobu Sato, Assoc. Prof. Yoshito Otake, and Assist. Prof. Futoshi Yokota of the Graduate School of Information Science), and then, the Systems Neurobiology and Medicine Laboratory (Prof. Naoyuki Inagaki of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences), to learn more of NAIST’s cutting-edge research in biomedical science and engineering fields.
As of January 2018, NAIST has 12 French partner institutions with academic exchange agreements. Additionally, two international collaborative laboratories, one established in 2014 with the University of Paul Sabatier (located in Toulouse) and the other established in 2016 with École Polytechnique ( located at NAIST), have played strategic roles in promoting research collaboration. Moreover, NAIST has strengthened its partnerships with French institutions concerning graduate education, particularly through the development of double-degree programs. We hope this visit will spur further collaboration with French institutions in various fields of science and technology.