Outline

Material Engineering Division

The specialized field of chemistry requires making full use of the　latest knowledge and research methods concerning material science.　Our concentration is to make the static and dynamic natures of　materials clear, and to be able to develop solutions for human and　social needs. Researchers having the ability to disseminate the　application as well as the methodology of their research throughout　international forums should also have a broad vision of the future.　Researchers and advanced technical experts will have the ability to　guide and promote any research and development projects.

Applied Materials Chemistry

　This course is grounded in chemistry and aims to foster an understanding of the properties and capabilities of a wider range of materials through the use of information systems and methodologies, and then to explore new materials that will fully meet the demands of human society and progress as well as methods for engineering those materials. Thus, the course objectives, are (1) to evaluate the properties and capabilities of different materials; (2) to understand the mechanisms for producing those materials as well as creating an organizational system and advancing fundamental theory; (3) to create new materials with capabilities through molecular design, materials design, functionality design; and furthermore; (4) to plan for the effective and advanced use of resources and energy by developing and advancing more resource-efficient and energy-efficient manufacturing methods.
　Based on this viewpoint, the education and research conducted in this course will be based not only on physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and chemical engineering, but also a wide range of related academic fields such as solid-state physics and condensed material theory. Grounded in these fundamentals, this course will allow students to explore inorganic substances such as metal carbides, nitrides, oxides, and chalcogenides; organic substances from simple molecules to macromolecules; and organometallic compounds and their complexes. Students will evaluate the electrical, electronic, magnetic, optical, energy converting, heat transmitting, heat insulating, dynamic, and catalytic properties of these substances; and they will conduct advanced research and development into the technologies, knowledge, and methodologies required to perform broad analyses ranging from the microscopic to the macroscopic, and develop advanced materials that possess all these properties as well as the manufacturing processes to produce them.
　Furthermore, this course aims to nurture researchers and highly-skilled technologists who possess outstanding creativity needed to commercialize fundamental research and new materials that result from this development; who will maintain a deep, organic relationship with such related fields as electronics, mechanical engineering, and materials engineering; and who will acquire the skills to advance complex technologies that combine these fields with peripheral scientific domains.

Applied Molecular Chemistry

　This course is concerned with the engineering applications of a wide range of synthetic organic substances, biological substances, and biological functions ranging from simple molecules to macromolecules; and it aims to develop a scientific understanding of the characteristics, capabilities, transformation processes and interaction mechanisms of these substances at the molecular level, as well as providing opportunities for education and research on molecular design, development, production, and application of useful new materials with superior characteristics. Through the study and research offered in this course, students will be offered the opportunity to investigate, theoretically and empirically, the correlation between the structure of simple organic compounds and their functionality using the latest physical and chemical equipments. They will, through molecular design and feedback, imbue materials with entirely new properties. In addition, the course will help students contribute to the development of new materials with an emphasis on organic compounds that contain heteroatoms and metals.
　The course also covers the development of organic compounds that provide a wide range of functionality including light, catalysis, information, recoganition, and transport; and in addition to promoting education and research related to functionality development mechanisms in existing synthetic organic functional materials and physiologically active materials. Students will mimic the amazing biological functionality possessed by living organisms and synthesize organic compounds with novel functionality. Furthermore, the course will nurture technologists who can provide the industrial world̶beginning with the chemical industry but also encompassing many other areas̶with materials they find useful, while at the same time conducting research that can improve the environment.
　Regarding macromolecular substances, this course will involve the synthesizing of materials with new functionality as well as providing fundamental education and research related to the reactions involved in that synthesis. In the process students will investigate the connections between this functionality development and solid-state properties, molecular structure, and the higher-order structures. In addition to establishing principles for molecular design related to the development of macromolecules with superior characteristics, students will be involved in education and research related to manufacturing processes, practical application, and industrial processing.
　With the goal of nurturing technologists and establishing new technologies related to bioengineering, this course will involve study and research concerning the fundamentals and practical development related to the latest bioengineering techniques in addition to biotechnology, such as (1) the highly efficient synthesis of useful biologically active substances, (2) the streamlined molecular design of functionally specific search molecules for the purpose of advancing fundamental research in the medical sciences, (3) the unraveling of molecular action mechanisms between physiologically active substances and biological macromolecules in biological functional development and the creation of artificial biological function-control substances based on that, (4) the engineering of substances with advanced functionality through biological reaction control and gene manipulation, (5) the search for new physiologically active substances through the use of in-vitro molecular evolution, and (6) the creation of unnatural super-proteins.