News in 2018 – Laboratory Soft & Wet Matter at Hokkaido University

Dec/14/2018

New members joined our lab!

Dec/13/2018

At CRIS building, we will hold a symposium inviting Dr. Reika Katsumata from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, consisting of Research Seminar on “Decoupling of segmental and entire chain dynamics under nanoconfinement” and Outreach Symposium on “Working in Academia as a Foreigner.”

Dec/7/2018

2019 summer, we will offer a course on “G018: Soft Interface & Soft Mechanics (Polymer Physics)” (cap: 30) for graduate students all over the country and the world in the Hokkaido Summer Institute (HSI2019). Application will be open from February 1st, 2019.

Dec/7/2018

Dr. Takahashi’s artwork has been chosen to appear on the back cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces Volume 5 Number 23.

Dec/5/2018

Dr. King delivers an invited talk at Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA.

Dec/1/2018

New member joined our lab!

Nov/26/2018

Dr. King delivers an invited talk at the MRS Fall 2018 Meeting: The Future of Materials Science Academia—Preparing for a career in Higher Education, Boston, MA, USA.

Nov/13/2018

Division of Soft Matter Entrance Examination Guidelines 2019 are now available on Graduate School of Life Science website.

Dec/30-Nov/13/2018

Prof. Kurokawa delivers an invited talk at the International Congress on Pure & Applied Chemistry (ICPAC) Langkawi 2018, Langkawi, Malaysia.

Oct/18/2018

Our work “Energy-Dissipative Matrices Enable Synergistic Toughening in Fiber Reinforced Soft Composites,” published in Advanced Functional Materials was one of the journal’s top 20 most downloaded recent papers!

Oct/17-19/2018

Dr. Nonoyama delivers an invited talk at the Bangladesh Chemical Congress 2018, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Oct/9/2018

Selected to be a part of the World Premier International Research Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan, Hokkaido University has launched the “Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (ICReDD)”. Prof. Gong will be serving as Principal Investigator. For details, visit the Hokkaido University Press Release.

Oct/1/2018

New members joined our lab!

Oct/1/2018

During the fall and winter terms, LSW hosts Ms. Yuki Meier, Master’s student at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, for half a year, and Mr. David Delgado, Ph.D. student at Northwestern University, IL, USA, and Lei Wu, Master’s student at Zhejiang University, China, for 3 months.

Sep/24-28/2018

With support from the Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Martin Frauenlob (D2) participates in a summer school in Italy. Report of International Experience “Summer course on Cell Mechanobiology in Udine” is available on Graduate School of Life Science website.

Sep/10/2018

Division of Soft Matter Entrance Examination Guidelines for Fall Selection are now available on Graduate School of Life Science website.

Sep/1/2018

New member joined our lab!

Aug/1/2018

Ms. Ye’s artwork has been chosen to appear on the frontispiece of Advanced Functional Materials Volume 28 Number 31.

Jul/2/2018

Prof. Gong delivers an invited talk at the MACRO2018 World Polymer Congress, Cairns, Australia.

Jul/1/2018

Our recent paper published on Advanced Materials has been featured in ChemistryViews’s article“Clingfish-Inspired Hydrogel Sticks Underwater.”

Jun/20/2018

Mr. Ryuji Kiyama has won the Excellent Poster Presentation Award for his presentation “Direct observation of single polymer strand based on double network strategy” at the Polymer networks and gels 2018 (PNG2018).

Jun/18/2018

Prof. Gong delivers an invited talk at the 82nd Prague Meeting on Macromolecules – Polymer Networks and Gels 2018 and 24th Polymer Network Group Meeting (PNG2018), Prague, Czech Republic.

Jun/16/2018

Prof. Gong delivers an invited talk at the 4th International Workshop on Soft Machines and Mechanics, Xi’an, China.

Jun/18/2018

LSW hosts Dr. Anaïs Giustiniani, post-doctoral fellow of Global Station for Soft Matter, GI-CoRE, for two years.

Jun/14/2018

Mr. Ken-ichi Hoshino has won the Best Poster Award for his presentation “Effect of Swelling on Network Elasticity of Hydrogel: from Shrinking State to Highly Swollen State” at the 13th International Symposium on Polymer Physics (PP’2018).

Jun/14/2018

Prof. Gong delivers an invited talk at PP’2018, Xi’an, China.

Jun/8/2018

Division of Soft Matter Entrance Examination Guidelines are now available on Graduate School of Life Science website.

Jun/14/2018

Dr. King delivers an invited talk at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.

May/7/2018

LSW hosts Ms. Julie Brun, Master’s student at ESPCI Paris, France, for 3 months this summer.

Apr/1/2018

New members joined our lab!

Mar/26/2018

Prof. Gong delivers an invited talk at the 17th Intl Conference on Deformation, Yield and Fracture of Polymers (DYFP2018), Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

Mar/23/2018

Hokkaido University’s research magazine series “Tackling Global Issues vol. 1” spotlights the research field of soft matter, featuring an interview with Prof. Gong and a roundtable discussion with worldwide notable soft matter scientists. For details, visit Hokkaido Univeristy website or ISSUU.

Mar/2/2018

A video abstract for our article published on Advanced Materials is accessible on YouTube: “A Method to Fabricate Anisotropic Hydrogels with Perfectly Aligned Hierarchical Fibrous Structures.” This work has been chosen for the frontispiece of the Journal.

Mar/1/2018

Prof. Gong delivers a plenary lecture at the Adhesion Society 41st Annual Meeting and 6th World Congress on Adhesion and Related Phenomena (WCARP), San Diego, CA, USA.

Feb/27/2018

Mr. Ping Rao has won the 2018 Adhesion Society Annual Meeting & the 6th World Congress on Adhesion and Related Phenomena “Distinguished Poster” Award for his presentation “Tough Hydrogel for Underwater Adhesion.”

Feb/12/2018

Our research on new “tougher-than-metal” fiber-reinforced hydrogels was featured on the Spanish TV channel Antena 3 TV’s “El Hormiguero.” Dr. Daniel King’s appearance begins at about 44 minutes.