東北大学
学際科学フロンティア研究所

Thanks to the support of the Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences I participated in two great international events: the Soft Condensed Matter 25th Anniversary Symposium, as well as the 38th European Colloid & Interface Society (ECIS) Conference in The Netherlands and Denmark, respectively.

 

The scientific trip kicked off in The Netherlands, where we celebrated the 25-year anniversary of the Soft Condensed Matter group at Utrecht University, where I performed my PhD work. Many former PhD students, many of whom now work at different universities or in industry, returned to give inspiring talks on their current work. My collaborator and I gave a talk highlighting the collaboration between Tohoku University and Utrecht University which has been going on for 18 (!) years, including our recent work. Catching up with former colleagues and ‘senpai’ of my previous group made for inspiring conversations where seeds of new collaborative research were sown.

 

The main event was the 38th European Colloid & Interface Society (ECIS) Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here, I gave a keynote lecture on the topic of “Supraparticle pigments for water-based paint” in a special session on “Nanopaint Theme: Nanoparticle Interactions in Dense Suspensions”. The many people who attended the talk showed great interest as I showed off our recent results on creating more sustainable paint solutions. On top of that, I won the “Elsevier Best Oral Award” for the best oral presentation for young researchers (within 7 years of finishing their PhD). In addition, two plenary lectures by prof. dr. Stefano Sacanna and prof. dr. Rafal Klajn on the creation of colloidal crystals in solution were awe-inspiring.

 

Both meetings proved great opportunities to showcase and discuss recent research as well as create new ideas for further research through networking with specialists in the field. I would like to thank FRIS for the support in making both visits possible.