An international symposium was organized by the 174th Committee on Molecular Nanotechnology of JSPS, during December 1st (Wed.)-2nd (Thu.), 2010, at the Nara Prefectural New Public Hall, Nara, Japan. The number of participants were 108 [87 from Japan, 21 non-Japanese (10 from USA, 5 from Korea, 1 from Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, China and India)].

Representative participants were F. Stoddart(Northwestern Univ.), M.　Niederberger (ETH Zurich ), H. Schlaad(Max Planck Institute at Potsdam), F.-G. Tournilhac(ESPCI at Paris), C.Y. Li(Drexel Univ.), L. Dai(Case Western Reserve Univ.), Bo Monemar(Linkoeping Univ.), K.W. Leong(DukeUniv.), K. J. Wynne(Virginia Common- wealth Univ.), S. I. Stupp(Northwestern Univ.), I.-K. Kang(Kyungpook National Univ.), and many other outstanding researchers.

Total budget was 8,410kYen including 1,800kYen as the JSPS Symposium Project Fund.

In view that the 174th committee aims at creation and development of a new science・technology field by integration of three key technologies such as nanodevice technology, nanohybrid materials and nanobiomaterials, the theme of the symposium was programmed to cover the above-mentioned three fields with a gentle gradation from nanodevice to biomaterials through nanohybridization. It was a motif of the symposium to summarize the research achievements of the 174th committee during the last five years of the second term of the committee as well as to grasp the recent molecular nanotechnology research trend with a global view. Along the plan, a plenary lecture was held on the frist and the second day, respectively, and the keynote lectures for each of the three key technologies were scheduled over the two days, followed by session lectures of the related field(see Table1).

The first-day session was begun with the plenary lecture by Prof. M. Irie entitled “Photochromism of Diarylethene Molecules and Crystals :Application to Molecular Machinary”.Following the keynote lecture by Prof. S. I. Stupp entitled “Bioactive and Electronically Conductive Nanofibers”, four session lectures were delivered.

The second-day session was begun with the plenary lecture by Prof. F. Stoddart entitled “Fashioning Functional Materials with Integrated Mechanostereochemical Systems” (Photo 1).

In this lecture Prof. Stoddart proposed a new scientific term Mechanostereochemistry to describe　the rapidly emerging area of chemical science where components of molecules and extended structures are mechanically intertlocked or sterically encumbered in such a manner that the components interact dynamically with one another as a result of a panoly of weak noncovalent bonds, and/or as a conseqence of dynamic coordinative or covalent bonds This idea is clearly distinguishable from both conventional molecular chemistry and contemporary supramolecular chemistry, and should be very important as the basic idea of molecular nanotechnology. Following the keynote lecture by Prof. K. Kataoka entitled “Smart Micelles and Vesicles from PEG-Polypeptide Block Copolymers as Nanocarriers for Gene and Drug Delivery” and that by Prof. K. W. Leong entitled “Cellular Response to Topographical Cues”, seven and two session lectures were delivered, respectively.

Along the important policy of the 174th committee of the encouragement of early career researchers, 23 poster presentations by early career researchers were collected by public subscription. As a consequence of rating by ten foreigner invited speakers in three steps such as the abstract of the paper, three-minute explanation, and the poster presentation, the top five presenters were bestowed with the excellent poster award (Photo 2).

In relation to the 1300th anniversary of the capital movement to Nara that was located at the east end of the silk road where the then Eurasian exchange of people and culture had been most active, Japanese songs were played by the Ensemble Houkiboshi. The songs were chosen to image the sceneries of poems collected in the Man-yo Luster, which were effective to tell the Japanese sprits and emotions.

For administration of the present symposium, a number of kind advices and cheerful events were proposed by the Nara Visitors Bureau. Foreign invited speakers enjoyed “herding deer by blowing a horn” in the Nara Park. The welcome performance by the flute ensemble “Naranofue” and “tasting sake” by a sake brewer in Nara entertained very much the participants in the buffet dinner. The fine weather and mild climate during the symposium period surely made the participants enjoyable the refined and tranquil atmosphere of the ancient capital city of Nara (Photo 3)