9th HOPE Meeting Overview

Date: Monday 27 February – Thursday 2, March 2017
Main Venue: Tokyo International Forum (Tokyo, Japan)
Subject Fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine and Related Fields
Organizer: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)

9th HOPE Meeting was attended by 110 doctoral students and young researchers from 22* Asia-Pacific and African countries and regions.

*Participants’ countries/areas
Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam

The six lecturers including five Nobel Laureates gave presentations in the HOPE Meeting. Each lecture took 75 minutes including 50-minute presentation and 25—minute Q&A session.

<Prof. Klitzing>

<Prof. Kajita>

In addition, 45-minute group discussions were held in the afternoon of 27, 28 February, and 1 March. Each discussion group consisted of about 20 to 30 participants and a moderator facilitated a group discussion. In these group discussions, participants conversed with the eminent lecturers about their research activities, future career paths and other topics of interest to them.

<Prof. Sauvage>

<Prof. Kobayashi>

Furthermore, the participants talked about their own research at “Flash Talks” and during the poster sessions so that they could share their current research with each other.

●Flash Talks on Poster Abstracts
One-minute oral presentations on poster abstracts were delivered by each participant on 27 February.

●Poster Sessions
During the HOPE meeting sessions, the posters prepared by the participants were displayed at the lobby of the main hall. Each participant was assigned to deliver a presentation in front of his/her poster during the three turns of poster sessions scheduled on 27, 28 February, and 1 March. Five participants who had achieved outstanding excellence were given the “Best Poster Award”, and among them, one was given the highest “HOPE Award”.

110 participants from Asia-Pacific Africa regions were divided into 11 teams in the HOPE meeting. On the last day of the meeting, teams comprising multinational members delivered excellent presentations. At the closing ceremony, 2 teams were awarded the “Best Team Presentation Award” and “Unique Presentation Award” presented by Professor Kobayashi, the Chair of the 9th HOPE Meeting.

In addition, the participants visited RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution renowned for high-quality research in a diverse range of scientific disciplines, located in Wako-city in the afternoon, 2 March.

Furthermore, the participants deepen the understanding of Japanese tradition and refined their perspectives of culture by trying their hand at Tea ceremony and Japanese calligraphy, enjoying the performance with traditional Japanese musical instruments, and taking a trip to visit cultural sites, Asakusa district.

All participants of the HOPE Meeting attended the Nobel Prize Dialogue Tokyo 2017 on the first day of the program. They actively joined the event by asking questions at the Q&A sessions after the lectures and a panel discussion on “The Future of Intelligence ”, and thus contributed to the symposium.
The formal reception of Nobel Prize Dialogue Tokyo 2017 and the 9th HOPE Meeting was jointly held in the presence of Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado in the evening.