Lecturer Yusuke Kishita has been recognized as The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researcher

Dr. Yusuke Kishita, Lecturer, Department of Precision Engineering, has been recognized as The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researcher.

The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Research program aims to support young researchers in their new research theme. Each School and Research Facilities nominated their researchers for this program. UTokyo selected 21 researchers out of 43 nominees according to their accomplishments and recommendations. 

This program started from the last year that it supports 2 years of grant, 3,000,000 yen/year, for the researchers to start their research. The nominees must meet following conditions as a principal investigator; one who is hired within 3 years by UTokyo, is under 40 years old, and is capable to manage own lab to set own research theme and able to execute it.

On Dec. 13, 2017, Those who are recognized as The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researchers had a meeting with President Gonokami at a meeting room in Yasuda Auditorium. They presented their research theme, its resolutions, and showed their appreciation for receiving its honor.

<About awarded research>

I have been working on the design of sustainable futures using scenarios and road maps. One of my research goals is to transform current society by making it sustainable. The term scenario is often used to describe the plot of movies and dramas, but here I use it to refer to the story that connects multiple possible futures with the present.

My aspiration is to describe the vision and pathway of Japan’s sustainable manufacturing industry leading to 2050. Motivated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, industry and governmental bodies are now paying a lot of attention to sustainability. In this context, the scenario methodology developed by our research team can assist these organizations in their activities and help in the process of designing strategies and policies, and co-creating new values by driving innovations. One characteristic of my research lies in inter- and transdisciplinarity, involving experts from different research areas, such as energy science, political science, and marketing science.

<Comments>

I am honored to be appointed as one of The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researchers in fiscal year 2017. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I wish to foster the development of a theoretical foundation and international collaborations to create a new academic field.