PROSPECTUS2021-2022

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08basics to applications of materials science, specializing in the fields such as materials development and design, materials processing systems, and characterization and testing of mechanical properties.New Research Building Inaugurated in April 2021A new laboratory building for the Next Generation Tatara Co-Creation Centre was recently opened in April 2021, at Matsue Campus of Shimane University. The three-story new building has a floor space of 1,845 square meters. The building was designed with the concept of “a research laboratory that unites people and technology” to become a base for open innova-tions where industry, academia, and government work together to create innovation. It is equipped with advanced and distinctive apparatus with an interactive space for students, teachers, and business persons The Doctoral Course at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology offers three special programs. One of them is the Materials Engineering Special Program for students involved in the research of advanced materials at NEXTA. Materials engineering is a discipline that combines physics and chemistry, and requires education that goes beyond the bound-aries of the Science and Engineering Course and the Science of Natural Environment Systems Course in the graduate school. In this program, students can take subjects in relation to materials engineering that exceed the boundaries of educational research and develop the ability to contribute to society as advanced researchers and engineers in the materials engineering field. Students in each year of this special program have a chance to be employed as research associates of NEXTA.where they can have wide-ranging discussions for innovation.World-Class Observation of Atomic Arrangement DisorderA research paper written by Professor ARAKAWA Kazuto, Vice Director of NEXTA, was published in Nature Materials in January 2020. The journal is one of the most influential publications in the materials field, and the news was reported by the national and interna-tional media. In his research, Professor ARAKAWA observed for the first time in the world that defects in a metal at low temperatures behave in a mysterious manner called “quantum diffusion,” by using a trans-mission electron microscopy that can examine samples at the atomic level. These results can open a new window to improve steel materials with low tempera-tures, and is expected to be useful for the development of materials that produce a large number of defects, such as materials for fusion reactors, which will be a future energy source.