Feb 04, 2019
Graduate School of Science student Koji Okuwaki wins “Young Scientist Presentation Award” from Japan Society of Applied Physics
Keyword:RESEARCH
OBJECTIVE.
Koji Okuwaki, a second year student in the chemistry program at the Graduate School of Science won the “45th Young Scientist Presentation Award” at the Japan Society of Applied Physics’ 79th Autumn Meeting, held at the Nagoya Congress Center in September. Okuwaki is part of Professor Yuji Mochizuki’s laboratory.
JASP hosts conferences for academic presentations every spring and autumn. About 7,000 scientists from across the nation usually attend the spring meeting, while about 6,000 participate in the autumn meeting, together holding around 4,000 presentations and spirited debates. The society also hosts international conferences and frequent lecture meetings and research seminars.
Young Scientist Presentation awards are handed out to young JASP members who present excellent papers on general topics that contribute to the development of applied physics at the spring and autumn meetings.
In recent years, there have been high hopes for using molecular simulations to streamline the process of developing new drugs and materials. The award-winning presentation was on an article titled “Non-empirical Coarse-grained Simulations for Lipid Vesicle and Protein.” In this study, the researchers developed a system that can make more realistic, high-precision predictions of molecular structures by taking the properties of microscopic fields into consideration. Along with Okuwaki, the paper was co-authored by Eiji Shinsho2, Hideo Doi3, Yuji Mochizuki1,4, Kaori Fukuzawa2,4, and Etsuo Yonemochi2 (1. Rikkyo University Graduate School of Science; 2. Hoshi University Pharmaceutical Course; 3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and 4. Tokyo University Institute of Industrial Science)
Their research and development project has been supported by “Priority Issue 6: Accelerated Development of Innovative Clean Energy Systems,” a program that is led by Tokyo University Professor Shinobu Yoshimura and is one of the social and scientific priority issues to be tackled by the post-K computer, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Young Scientist Presentation awards are handed out to young JASP members who present excellent papers on general topics that contribute to the development of applied physics at the spring and autumn meetings.
In recent years, there have been high hopes for using molecular simulations to streamline the process of developing new drugs and materials. The award-winning presentation was on an article titled “Non-empirical Coarse-grained Simulations for Lipid Vesicle and Protein.” In this study, the researchers developed a system that can make more realistic, high-precision predictions of molecular structures by taking the properties of microscopic fields into consideration. Along with Okuwaki, the paper was co-authored by Eiji Shinsho2, Hideo Doi3, Yuji Mochizuki1,4, Kaori Fukuzawa2,4, and Etsuo Yonemochi2 (1. Rikkyo University Graduate School of Science; 2. Hoshi University Pharmaceutical Course; 3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and 4. Tokyo University Institute of Industrial Science)
Their research and development project has been supported by “Priority Issue 6: Accelerated Development of Innovative Clean Energy Systems,” a program that is led by Tokyo University Professor Shinobu Yoshimura and is one of the social and scientific priority issues to be tackled by the post-K computer, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
COMMENTS
a second-year student of the Doctoral Program, Graduate Program in Chemistry, Graduate School of Science
Koji Okuwaki
I am very honored to have received the Young Scientist Presentation Award from the prestigious Japan Society of Applied Physics. I would like to thank my instructor, Professor Mochizuki, and the many others who supported and engaged in discussions with me. I am pleased that the society found value in my attempts to control molecular structures using molecular simulations, a computational form of chemistry that does not use actual drugs. I will do my utmost in my research so I can continue to contribute to the academic world.