FACULTY RESEARCH ACTIVITY 2014

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44Functional Polymer ScienceMusubu IchikawaProfessorTapping organic EL to bring us future products such as televisions that can be rolled up and carried and ceilings with built-in lightingDivision of Chemistry and MaterialsI am carrying out research into organic EL (organic LED), an area that is the focus of increasing expectations concerning potential applications in next-generation displays and lighting. Multinational corporations from outside Japan are also showing interest, and my lab is cooperating with them. If successful, it will become possible to make entire ceilings and walls into lighting and to make televisions and computer monitors that can be rolled up and carried around. Currently, our major challenge is to reduce power consumption.Professor Ichikawa took his current position in 2013 after working at the Ube Industries Polymer Research Center and as an assistant professor and associate professor in the Faculty of Textile Science and Technology at Shinshu University. His areas of research are functional materials and devices and physical chemistry, including organic semiconductor devices and organic photoelectric materials.In addition to research into organic EL, research is also being actively conducted into organic semiconductors and organic solar cells, and these products are expected to contribute to the realization of an abundant and sustainable society.Outlook for researchGraduates are employed by material, chemical, and electrical equipment manufacturers, while some students are employed by major printing companies that are involved in organic EL development.Outlook for students after graduationAn organic semiconductor material developed in the research lab is melted and applied to a circuit board to create a transistor. We are carrying out research to create example uses that leverage its properties.An organic EL. Unlike LEDs, the principal characteristic of an organic EL, a conductive polymer, is that it emits light from a form like a thin membrane.Functional Polymer ScienceExploring the future of biochemical researchDivision of Chemistry and MaterialsI am carrying out bioscience and biochemical research into fibers made by organisms that live in water. My research primarily covers the phyla Mollusca and Arthropoda. Bivalve clams that live in the ocean create a type of fiber called byssus.Kousaku OhkawaProfessorAfter graduating from the Functional Polymer Science Course at the Faculty of Textile Science and Technology (FTST) and completing the rst semester of a doctoral program at the Graduate School of Engineering, Professor Ohkawa participated in a graduate course oered by the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Biological Science. He subsequently returned to the Institute of High Polymer Research (IHPR) run by the FTST at Shinshu University in 1996 as an assistant professor and later submitted his doctoral thesis to the University of Tokyo (Doctorate of Science, 1998). He was promoted to associate professor at the IHPR in 2003. His has served as a professor in the Division of Biological and Medical Fibers at the Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES) at Shinshu University since 2014.Living organisms leverage their acquired knowledge to create exceptional bers in the water. There is a great deal that researchers can learn from ber materials created by living organisms. This knowledge will lead to the ber material engineering of the future.Outlook for researchGraduates are employed as R&D engineers by manufacturers involved in the following businesses: spinning; ber production; non-woven material production; food ingredient production; sports product production; plastic processing; processing, manufacture, and sale of natural polysaccharides; and chemical product manufacturing.Outlook for students after graduationByssus bers are generated by the adhesive disk at the end (left: the sticky part), the distal section (center: a hard, strong ber), and the proximal section (right: a tough, strong ber).The Asian green mussel creates this strange byssus ber underwater.

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