Project Professor Sota Sato of
Social Cooperation Program “Integrated Molecular Structure Analysis Laboratory” in the Department of Applied Chemistry was highly praised for his outreach activities to deepen society's understanding of chemistry. Even when the results of cutting-edge research in molecular science are disseminated, they are often perceived as difficult and incomprehensible, and the fact that the research results of academia are not effectively returned to society can be said to be a loss to society as a whole. In order to solve this problem, he has been actively working to create opportunities for communication regarding chemistry, such as new types of mock classes and lectures using ITC, experimental training using expensive equipments, web videos and TV appearances, etc. He has greatly lowered the hurdles in the world of molecular science by devising and utilizing a character, Crystal Sponge, who communicates cutting-edge chemistry in an easy-to-understand manner without compromising highly specialized information (
https://satolab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/featured/crystalline_sponge/). Furthermore, he created "VR-MD"
, which allows people to see molecules three-dimensionally, touch them in real time, and have fun learning chemistry, bringing the world's first system that can directly convey the sensibilities of experts to the world of chemical communication (
https://youtu.be/K1La6jp2ElA,
https://satolab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/featured/03/).I believe that the responsibility of a university is to create new value that no one else could have imagined through new attempt. In the future, I would like to continue exploring the ideal form of chemical communication and creating values that will make people around the world happy.
