Ludwig Boltzmann’s life – an overview

Gerhard Fasol

keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, Thursday 18 February 2016

We use Ludwig Boltzmann’s results and tools every day

by Gerhard Fasol

Ludwig Boltzmann was born 20 February 1844

We use Ludwig Boltzmann’s results every day. Among Ludwig Boltzmann’s results and tools:

• Unit of temperature, definition of Kelvin, Celsius directly linked to Boltzmann constant
• Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law
• S = k log W – linking macroscopic entropy to statistics of molecules. Also appears in information science.
• Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law
• Boltzmann transport equations
• Philosophy of nature
• and much more

Ludwig Boltzmann was proposed several times  for the Nobel Prize:

• 1903
• 1905
• three times in 1906

however Ludwig Boltzmann died on September 5, 1906, in Duino, Italy. On February 20, 2014, Ludwig Boltzmann’s 170th birthday, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in a ceremony in the building where he passed away, on the same day we held the 6th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum in Tokyo.

Ludwig Boltzmann’s life – an outline

Ludwig Boltzmann was born on 20 February 1844.

He graduated from High School, passing the Austrian High School examination “Matura” in 1863, at the age of 19 years.

Two years later, in 1865, Ludwig Boltzmann published his first scientific publication at the age of 21:

• “Über die Bewegung der Elektrizität in krummen Flächen” (Electricity on curved surfaces), Wien. Ber. 52, p214-221 (1865).

About 20% of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work was about electro-magnetism, Maxwell had developed the Maxwell’s equations just a few years earlier, 1861-1962. (In Japan’s context, Tokyo Dentou KK received the license to build the first electricity generation and distribution system in Tokyo on February 15, 1883, it was the time when electrical lighting was starting to replace gas lighting, and in parallel scientific work on electricity and magnetism advanced).

Ludwig Boltzmann built mechanical models to understand, visualize and teach Maxwell’s equations. These models have recently been rebuilt and can be seen for example at the University of Graz.

Ludwig Boltzmann’s teachers include:

• Josef Loschmidt:
  • proposed structures for 300 chemical compounds, including benzene
  • determined the number of gas molecules in a given volume
  • the Loschmidt constant is named after Josef Loschmidt
• Jozef Stefan
  • created the Stefan-Boltzmann Radiation Law together with Ludwig Boltzmann
  • was the first to determine the temperature of the sun

Ludwig Boltzmann: timeline

• 1865, age 21: first publication: “Electricity on curved surfaces”
• 1867-1869, age 23-25: Privat-Dozent
• 1869, age 25: Full Professor in Graz “Mathematical Physics”
• 1873, age 29: Full Professor in Wien “Mathematics”
• 1875, age 31: declined offer of Professorship in Zurich and Freiburg
• 1876, age 32: marriage, Full Professor Graz, Head of Physics Institute
• 1887-1888, age 43-44: Rektor (President) University Graz
• 1888, age 44: March: offered Professorship in Berlin, June: declined Professorship
• 1890, age 46: Professor in München (students include the later First President of the University of Osaka, Hantaro)
• 1894, age 50: Professor in Wien
• 1900-1902, age 56-58: Professor of Theoretical Physics in Leipzig
• 1902, age 58: Professor in Wien
• September 5, 1906, age 62, died in Duino, Italy

Ludwig Boltzmann visited the USA three times:

• 1899
• 1904
• 1905

Ludwig Boltzmann’s support for women professionals and scientists

1872 Ludwig Boltzmann met Henriette von Aigentler. She was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University.
Ludwig Boltzmann advised her to appeal, and in 1874 Henriette passes the exam as high-school teacher.
On July 17, 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann and Henriette von Aigentler marry. They have four children:

• 1880: Henriette
• 1881: Arthur Ludwig (my grand-father)
• 1891: Else
• 1884: Ida

Lise Meitner (Nov 1878 – 27 October 1968)

Ludwig Boltzmann’s student Lise Meitner was later part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, for which Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Lise Meitner was the 2nd woman ever to earn a Doctorate in Physics from the University of Vienna.

Element 109 is named Meitnerium to honor Lise Meitner.

Nagaoka Hantaro, Ludwig Boltzmann’s pupil in München (1892-1893)

Nagaoka Hantaro (1865-1950) was Ludwig Boltzmann’s pupil in München around 1892-1893.

Nagaoka Hantaro was Professor at the University of Tokyo 1901-1925, and among his pupils was Hideki Yukawa.

1931-1934, Nagaoka Hantaro was the first President of the University of Osaka.

Ludwig Boltzmann as angel investor: supported aviation

Ludwig Boltzmann was a frequent traveler, usually by train, and to the USA by ship, so he understood the market for transportation, and supported several ventures to develop aircraft. He wrote an article “Über Luftschifffahrt” in 1894. He supported:

• Otto Lilienthal, Berlin
• Wilhelm Kreis, Wien
• Hiram S Maxim, an American engineer in the UK

Ludwig Boltzmann countered the view that engines heavier than air cannot fly, and argued for funding of applied research.

Ludwig Boltzmann traveled widely, was in intense scientific interaction with most major scientists of his time, both at conferences, as well as by exchanging letters.

Ludwig Boltzmann moved frequently between positions, motivated both by increased responsibilities, close interaction with colleagues, e.g. Ostwald in Leipzig, and also in the interest of increasing his income for the benefit of his family.

So much for a short overview of Ludwig Boltzmann’s life as an introduction to the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum in Tokyo, to illustrate Ludwig Boltzmann’s wide range of interests, his frequent travels, and his actions beyond his fields of Physics, Philosophy and Mathematics.

Copyright (c) 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara and Co-founder of Soraa

Shuji Nakamura: bottom-up innovation, not top-down innovation.

keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, Thursday 18 February 2016

(summary of Shuji Nakamura’s talk – including some comments – by Gerhard Fasol)

by Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara and Co-founder of Soraa

Shuji Nakamura is born on 22 May 1954 in Ohku, part of the village Yotsuhamamura (四ツ浜村, 4290 inhabitants) (日本 愛媛県西宇和郡四ツ浜村大久) on the Western side of Shikoku Island (四国, 4.2 million inhabitants), went to Elementary School and High School in Ozu (大洲), not far away, also on the Western side of Shikoku, studied at Tokushima University, which at that time did not have a Physics Department (Shuji Nakamura later won the Nobel Prize in Physics!), and then entered Nichia Chemical Industries in 1979 after graduating from the University of Tokushima. Nichia Chemical Industries is located in Anan, about 20 km south of Tokushima.

Until moving to the University of California in Santa Barbara, Shuji Nakamura spent his whole life, education, University, and professional work as researcher at Nichia entirely on the Island of Shikoku, with no connection to Tokyo, to Government, or Japan’s establishment, or research establishment.

Shuji Nakamura’s lack of connections to Japan’s establishment, industrial establishment, academic establishment or government establishment maybe at the origin of the many misunderstandings which have developed between Shuji Nakamura and Japan’s media, and some of Japan’s establishment.

Thus Shuji Nakamura is the perfect example of bottom-up innovation. Not planned from the top. Therefore maybe its hard for people at the top to grasp and accept.

Shuji Nakamura and his inventions have huge impact on the world, it is hard for Government and main stream media to accept, that Shuji Nakamura does not fit at all into planned top-down innovation, but has created his own independent path.

The contrast between Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation – recognized and rewarded by the Nobel Prize in Physics – and the official views of top-down innovation seems to have led to many misunderstandings. Shuji Nakamura is making much effort, including today’s talk at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, to clear up these misunderstandings.

Invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes vs. development of manufacturing technologies

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize of Physics 2014 to Isamu Akasaki (1/3), Hiroshi Amano (1/3) and Shuji Nakamura (1/3), “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources“.

In an interview for the Japanese Mainichi-Shinbun, the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Per Delsing summarized the key discoveries of each Nobel Laureate from the point of view of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics:

• Isamu Akasaki: High quality GaN with AlN buffer
• Hiroshi Amano: Demonstration of GaN pn junction
• Shuji Nakamura: Many contributions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs

The discovery of blue GaN LEDs is a discovery in the field of Physics achieved by three people, their contributions are:

• Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano
  1. AlN buffer (to grow AlN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
  2. p-GaN by electron beam irradiation
  3. realization of GaN pn homo-junction
• Shuji Nakamura
  1. GaN buffer (to grow GaN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
  2. p-GaN by thermal annealing and the theoretical clarification of the mechanism for p-type conductivity
  3. the invention of InGaN-based high brightness double-heterostructure blue LEDs (the Nobel Prize was given to the invention of this LED)

The Nobel Prize Committee awarded the Nobel Prize to Shuji Nakamura for many contributions and inventions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs

In his will, Alfred Nobel writes:

“The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics;…”

It is perfectly clear from Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prize Committee awards Nobel Prizes in Physics for “the most important discoveries or inventions within the field of physics” – not for the development of manufacturing technologies.

Why is it that Japan’s major Government Organizations and media present a narrative of the LED invention which is opposite to the views of the Nobel Prize Committee and the scientific community outside Japan?

Shuji Nakamura expresses his frustration that the clear explanations of the Nobel Prize Committee’s reasons are not understood by Japanese Media, and many others.

It appears to Shuji Nakamura that there seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of who invented what, and who was awarded the Nobel Prize for what.

Japanese media (Yomiuri Shinbun and others), NHK (e.g. in the Science ZERO program), Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization NEDO in their publications, Japan’s Science and Technology Agency JST, Japan’s Science Council JSC, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, all present a picture of the LED inventions which is opposite to the clear statements by the Nobel Prize Committee.

They all write that Professor Akasaka and Amano developed the blue LED in 1989 at Nagoya University, while Shuji Nakamura developed the manufacturing technology in 1993. Such a narrative fits well with a top-down picture, where Professors at Nagoya University make the scientific breakthrough, which is then transferred to industry, where an industrial researcher develops the manufacturing applications, which then the company commercializes.

This top-down narrative would fit well the top-down view of innovation, however this is not how the breakthrough invention of GaN LEDs and lasers, which are now leading to the global lighting revolution actually happened.

Shuji Nakamura explains the essential steps leading to the invention and development of high intensity GaN LEDs

Professor Akasaka and Amano developed homo-junction LEDs, which are very inefficient and show very dim light emission

Professors Akasaki and Amano developed methods to produced n-type and p-type GaN and grew homo-junction GaN LEDs, which emit light, but which are highly inefficient, and the light emission is very dim. Still, this discovery was a crucial step forward, and Akasaka and Amano were awarded shares of the Nobel Prize for these important developments.

For tunable colors, high output power an efficient device structure, and many other developments were necessary, which Shuji Nakamura achieved.

A crucial step forward was the development of heterostructure LEDs, where electrons and holes are confined in quantum wells formed by hetero-junctions, yielding higher efficiencies. Double heterostructures were invented by Z I Alferov and H Kroemer, who were awarded shares of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for these and other inventions.

A series of inventions led to efficient blue LEDs:

• p-type GaN activated by electron beam irradiation (Akasaki & Amano, 1989)
• AlN buffer (Akasaki & Amano, 1985)
• GaN buffer (Nakamura, 1991)
• InGaN emitting active layer (Nakamura and Mukai, 1992)
• p-type GaN activated by thermal annealing. Hydrogen passivation was clarified as the origin of hole compensation (Nakamura at al, 1992)

Shuji Nakamura’s development of hydrogen free annealing of p-type GaN and the development of InGaN heterostructure lead to the breakthrough development of high brightness InGaN LEDs for blue emission

A particularly important discovery by Shuji Nakamura in 1992 was to find out why p-type GaN could not be efficiently produced previous to this invention. Shuji Nakamura found out that previous researchers had all annealed p-type GaN in hydrogen (H+) atmosphere, which passivated the p-GaN, making it useless for electronic devices.

Shuji Nakamura invented the method to anneal p-type GaN in a hydrogen-free atmosphere which for the first time allowed the production of proper p-type GaN layers.

This in 1994, Shuji Nakamura could report the first high brightness InGaN LEDs for blue emission, S. Nakamura et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, (1994) 1687-1689.

It is a misunderstanding to emphasize only Shuji Nakamura’s developments of manufacturing technologies, and to forget about Shuji Nakamura’s many inventions in the field of physics for which he was awarded his share in the Nobel Prize in Physics

Had Shuji Nakamura developed “only” manufacturing techniques, Shuji Nakamura would certainly not have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for a long string of discoveries and developments in the field of physics, in addition to developing a wide range of manufacturing technologies as well, such as the two-flow MOCVD equipment.

What is an LED? How to produce energy efficient white light?

A light emitting diode (LED) produces light of a single color corresponding to the energy difference of electrons and holes recombining across the bandgap in a semiconductor LED device.

By choosing different materials, LEDs emitting light of different colors can be produced. To produce white light, the light emitted by several different LEDs of different color can be combined, e.g. blue + yellow, or blue + yellow + red.

Another option to produce white light is to coat a blue light emitting LED with phosphor, where the phosphor converts part of the blue light into yellow light. The remaining blue light combined with the yellow light emitted by the phosphor appears white to the human eye.

Conventional white LEDs, consisting of blue LEDs covered by phosphor, show strong blue light emission, and disrupt the human circadian cycle and possibly suppresses melatonin (see: Narusawa et al, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 354002).

Most PCs, laptop, smartphone and tablet liquid crystal displays use such white LEDs for the background lighting, cause eye fatigue, and thus filters can be used to cut the blue light.

Apple has acknowledged the dangers of strong blue light emission, and has developed methods to reduce blue light emission. The blue “spike” in the white light output from electronic devices can reduced the production of the sleep inducing melatonin hormone, and has been linked to health disorders and even cancer.

What is an LED? How to produce energy efficient white light?

Applications for InGaN based LEDs:

• solid state lighting
• decorative lighting
• automobile lighting
• displays (e.g. for PCs, TV, tablets, smartphones
• agriculture:
  • plant factories using blue/red LEDs in a clean room achieves growth rates 2.5 – 5 times higher than in nature
  • achieve 50%-90% higher yields
  • water consumption 1% compared to outside
• indoor lighting

Energy savings impact: save 60 nuclear power stations globally until 2020

LEDs are 4 times as energy efficient as fluorescent tubes, and about 20 times as efficient as incandescent bulbs:

• oil lamp: 0.1 lumen/Watt
• incandescent light bulb: 16 lumen/Watt
• fluorescent lamp: 70 lumen/Watt
• LED lamp: 300 lumen/Watt

Converting traditional lighting to LED lighting, we can reduce global energy consumption corresponding by an amount corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020:

• Japan could save 7 nuclear power plants by converting lighting to LEDs
• Germany could save 3 nuclear power plants
• USA could save 19 nuclear power plants
• China could save 17 nuclear power plants
• India could save 9 nuclear power plants

Nichia vs Nakamura lawsuits

Time line:

• 1993 Nakamura et al: first high efficiency blue InGaN LED was invented, Nobel Prize in Physics
• 1995 Nakamura et al: first violet InGaN laser diode was invented
• 1999 Nichia Chemical Industries: first products of violet InGaN laser diode
• 2000 Shuji Nakamura quits Nichia Chemical Industries and moves to University of California Santa Barbara
• 2000 Nichia Chemical Industries starts the lawsuit against Nakamura alleging infringements of trade secrets in USA
• 2001 Nakamura starts the counter lawsuit against Nichia Chemical Industries using the patent law article No. 35
• 2002 Nakamura wins the lawsuit regarding trade secrets in the USA against Nichia
• 2004 Nakamura wins wins US$ 200 million against Nichia as a reasonable compensation fee at Tokyo District Court
• 2005 Nakamura settlement by winning US$ 8 million with Nichia as a reasonable compensation fee at Tokyo High Court
• 2014 Nakamura wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Japan’s vs US judicial system – Shuji Nakamura’s experiences

1. No discovery process in Japan: no need to submit documents or evidence, no depositions
2. No discussions at court hearing; both lawyers submit statements and prepared documents to the judge without discussion
3. Ruling: ruling determined by how many people could benefit by ruling
4. Penalties: penalties are determined by precedence and earlier rulings. Punishments and penalties are generally much higher in the USA, thus much higher sanctions for breaking the laws
5. Judges’ salaries in Japan are determined by superiors, while in the USA the salary of each judge is guaranteed by the constitution
6. IP lawsuits tend to move to the USA, because USA includes discovery process and higher awards for the winners of lawsuits
7. No perjury in Japan. Harder to enforce truth of parties statements in Japan.
8. Libel or defamation are weakly sanctioned, fines/awards are relatively low and on the order of US$ 10,000 in Japan.

Key elements for success

• risk taking
• innovation and flexibility
• team diversity
• intellectual freedom – thinking differently
• hard work
• infrastructure and cultural support for innovation or failure

More information

• Shuji Nakamura’s website at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Soraa
• Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting, 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, 20 February 2015
• Nobel Prize 2014, Shuji Nakamura, Facts
• Shuji Nakamura, Gerhard Fasol, Stephen J Pearton: The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story, 2nd Edition, Springer Verlag 2000

Copyright (c) 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Michinari Hamaguchi, President of Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA) (previously President of Nagoya University)

keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Thursday 18 February 2016

by Michinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya University

summary written by Gerhard Fasol

About Nagoya (Professor Hamaguchi is emeritus President of Nagoya University)

Nagoya is an industrial powerhouse with more than 100 international enterprises based with their headquarters in Nagoya.

If Nagoya was a country, Nagoya would be ranked 20th globally in terms of GDP

Ranking countries by GDP (source World Economic Outlook Database April 2011):

1. USA: US$ 14,685 billion
2. China: US$ 5,878 billion
3. Japan: US$ 5,459 billion
4. Germany: US$ 3,316 billion
5. …
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10. …
11. …
12. …
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15. …
16. …
17. …
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19. Switzerland: US$ 524 billion
20. Greater Nagoya region: US$ 491 billion
21. Poland: US$ 469 billion

Nagoya hosts Toyota, and is also a center of Japan’s aerospace industry with Mitsubishi and Kawasaki. 35% of the Boeing 787 body are made in the Nagoya region.

Toyota’s hybrid technology was developed by Nagoya University alumni Mr Uchiyamada, who is currently Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Nagoya University

Nagoya University researchers and alumni are beginning to achieve a number of Nobel Prizes in recent years:

• 2001: Ryoji Noyori (Chemistry)
• 2008: Toshihide Maskawa (Physics)
• 2008: Makoto Kobayashi (Physics)
• 2008: Osamu Shimomura (Chemistry)
• 2014: Isamu Akasaki (Physics)
• 2014: Hiroshi Amano (Physics)

Nagoya University has a very interesting Academic Charter (名古屋大学学術憲章), which lays out the fundamental objectives and policies.

Nagoya University’s Academic Charter (名古屋大学学術憲章) emphasizes a free and vibrant academic culture (自由闊達な学風), the cultivation of courageous intellectuals endowed with powers of rational thought and creativity (論理的思考力と想像力に富んだ勇気ある知識人).

Interestingly the fundamental objectives emphasize international cooperation – with emphasis on Asian nations (とりわけアジア諸国と).

Nagoya University guarantees freedom of academic research (学問の自由) and aspires to be an accessible University ((開かれた大学).

Question 1: Can we foster a “brave heart” by education? (勇気は教育で生み出すことができるものか？)

Inspired by Nelson Mandela: courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over fear, conquering fear. Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. （私は学んだ。勇気とは恐怖を知らない事ではなく、それに打ち勝つところにあるのだと。勇者とは怖れを知らない人間ではなく、怖れを克服する人間の事なのだと。）

We want to educate courageous individuals endowed with powers of rational thought and creativity. (論理的思考力と創造力に富んだ勇気ある知識人）

Question 2: Can we foster “innovative talent” by education? (イノベーティブな才能は教育で生み出すことができるものか？)

M. Reznikoff et al (Reznikoff, M., Domino, G., Bridges, C., & Honeyman, M. (1973). Creative abilities in identical and fraternal twins. Behavioral Genetics, 3, 365–377.) studied 117 pairs of twins and failed to identify a genetic component in creativity. It appears that we inherit general intelligence genetically, but not creativity.

Entrepreneurship on the other hand is not “natural”, not creative – it is work. Both entrepreneurship and innovation are hard work, can be learned and require effort.

see: Christensen “The Innovator’s DNA”, and Drucker “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”.

Intelligence and age: Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence

Psychologist Raymond Cattle (see also: “A Memorial to Raymond Bernard Cattle, 1905 – 1998“), later with his student John Horn, developed the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence:

• Fluid intelligence (閃きの知性): is the ability to think an reason abstractly and to solve problems. Fluid intelligence is thought to be independent of learning, experience and education.
• Crystallized intelligence (結晶化する知性): comes from prior learning and past experience. Crystallized experience typically grows with age.

When we look at the age at which Nobel Prize winners have done their prize winning work, we see a broad distribution, with a peak around 35-39 years age, with outliers in the 20-24 years age group, and above 60 as well.

Mentors are important: at Nagoya University Nobel Prize Winner Osamu Akasaki has educated and influenced five more Nobel Prize Winners.

Question 3: Is there any culture (soil) that makes innovative talent to blossom out? (イノベーティブな才能を開花させる文化（土壌）は存在すか？)

Frans Johansson examined the “Medici Effect”, the explosion of creativity during the Italian Renaissance period: innovative ideas flourished at the intersection of diverse experiences.

Frans Johansson: The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation

The Medici Effect at Nagoya University:

We have equal partnerships to support innovative ideas and mentorships to encourage young talent’s independence.

Question 4: What is required for youth to be an innovator? (イノベーターになるには、何が必要か？)

Clayton Christensen identified 5 skills as the innovator’s DNA:
“The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators” by Clayton M. Christensen, Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen

Two common themes motivate innovators:

• Actively desire to change the status quo
• Regularly take smart risks to make that change happen

Question 5: How can we teach to take smart risks? (スマート・リスクをとる勇気はどうやったら教えることができるか？)

The answer I found is: “let them go abroad and experience diversity”.

The “Hamaguchi Plan” for Nagoya University: accelerating Nagoya University’s internationalization “名古屋大学からNagoya Universityへ”

The “Hamaguchi Plan” covers five areas:

1. Cultivation of global leaders:
   • Enrichment of liberal arts education
   • Strengthening of global competitiveness through the Global 30 Program
   • Re-Inventing Japan Project, and
   • Programs for Leading Graduate Schools
2. Promotion of world class research:
   • Cultivation of internationally recognized young researchers
   • Exploration of new frontiers through the utilization of cutting-edge facilities
3. Organizational innovation:
   • Development and expansion of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
   • Reorganization of educational and research functions
   • Collaboration with other universities
4. Collaboration with and further contribution to local and regional communities:
   • Collaboration with the “Knowledge Hub” Project and
   • Promotion of community health systems
5. Raising of Nagoya University Fund:
   • 5 Billion yen (US$ 50 million) within 5 years for use toward scholarship and student support

You can download the Hamaguchi Plan for Nagoya University here in English.

Simple facts I found by the internationalization of Nagoya University:

• Surprisingly, most outbound students are women!
• Women are courageous intellectuals endowed with powers of rational thought and creativity
• Why?

UN HeForShe and 10x10x10 programs

Nagoya University initiates and takes part in many programs for and with women. Here two examples:

• HeForShe, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeForShe
• IMPACT 10x10x10: 10 Governments x 10 companies x 10 Universities: Nagoya University is one of 10 “University Impact Champions”

Today’s conclusion

Ladies will rescue “the world at risk” and give us hope!

Copyright 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Gender inequality in Japan: a case report of women doctors

Kyoko Nomura, MD, MPH, PhD

keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, Thursday 18 February 2016

[Japanese version 日本語版　野村恭子、医師・医学博士、日本の男女共同参画：女性医師を事例に]

by: Kyoko Nomura, MD, MPH, PhD: Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, and Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health

In 2016, Japan’s elderly population, aged 65 years or older, comprises 26%, which is one-fourth of total population. By contrast, the younger generation, aged 0-14 years, comprises only 14%. Why so low?

Nowadays, the birth rate in Japan is estimated at 10.3 per 1,000 population, meaning that one woman bears only one child over her lifetime on average. The Japanese Health Ministry estimates that the nation’s total population will fall to 95.2 million by 2050. The aging of Japan is brought about by a combination of low birthrate and longevity.

Now we understand that Japan faces an aging society. Who is going to take care of this quickly growing aging population? Of course, younger people and women! This is the fundamental reason why women are encouraged to work as much as men to support the aging society.

However in Japan, our traditional gender roles that men should work outside and women be good house wives is strongly embedded in our mindset and hard to get rid of.

According to the Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks at 105th near the bottom among 135 countries in terms of gender equality, mainly due to the underrepresentation of women in economic and political leadership.

In the medical area, Japan faces a physician shortage because the number of physicians per 1000 population is 2.2 which is lower than the average of OECD countries, 3.2 per 1000 population. This means, if you reside in a remote area and suppose you have a cancer, it is less likely to find a medical doctor who can treat your cancer in your neighborhood. Hence, Japan needs higher numbers of medical doctors to meet patients’ needs and definitely women medical doctors are expected to work more to take care of patients.

Actually the number of women entering into medicine is increasing and now constitutes 20% of total number of medical doctors. But this value is still low among OECD countries (actually it is lowest) and thus, we need to set up an urgent strategy to improve working conditions for women to work as much as male counterparts and pursue their potentials as well.

Dr. Nomura conducted a surveys of alumnae from 14 medical schools and found that 98% of men worked in full-time positions, but only 70% of women worked in full time positions, and that men work longer hours per week compared to women. In her another survey with colleagues, they also found that many women quit working at the time of life events like marriage and child birth or rearing; the retirement rate from full-time labour was 44％ in 5 yrs and rose up to 85％ in 10 yrs. To make matters worse, once they switched from full-time to part-time positions, only one third of these people will return to full-time work.

As a consequence, women are underrepresented in medicine. We have 80 medical schools in Japan and each has one dean but there are only 2 women and women constitute only 2.6% of full professors in medicine in Japan, which is far behind of USA (19%) and UK (16%).

Dr. Nomura and her colleagues have recently published an article to the international scientific journal “Surgery” in February 2016 and this epidemiological study based on 8,000 surgeons who are members of the Japan Surgical Society demonstrated that married men earn more than unmarried women after adjusting for covariates including working hours; as the number of children increases, annual income increases only for men but decreases for women. 

In another study, she also demonstrated that the length of weekly domestic working hours is much longer for unmarried women than for married men and men do not work at home even if they have children (the average household working hours for men is only 3 hours per week).

These findings suggest that Japan’s stereotypical gender role, where men should work outside and women should be housewives still prevails even among highly qualified professionals like medical doctors.

One of the top scientific journal “Nature” recently published a special issue called “women in science”. This article states that Science remains institutionally sexist. Despite some progress, women scientists are still paid less, promoted less frequently, win fewer grants and are more likely to leave research than similarly qualified men.

Dr. Nomura has launched a women support center at her University in 2014 and provides various kinds of support to women researchers and physicians including

• to provide a nursery for children including sick children
• to provide social support like mentorship
• to provide various seminars and workshops on research skills
• to promote gender equality campaigns

With these efforts, Teikyo University has successfully increased the numbers and percentages of women faculty members. Dr. Nomura concluded by saying “in order to support women, environmental support at the workplace is not enough, but a combination of workplace support with educational intervention and career development works very well.”

Kyoko Nomura, Teikyo University, Profile

Education:

MD, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, April 1987-March 1993

Master of Public Health: Quantitative Methods, Harvard School of Public Health, MA02115, USA, June 2001-June 2002

PhD: Dep. of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine , April 1999-March 2003

Current position:

• Associate professor of Dep. of Hygiene and Public Health and Teikyo University School of Medicine, and Teikyo School of Public Health
• Director of Teikyo Support Center for women physicians and researchers

Kyoko Nomura, Teikyo University, publications

Kyoko Nomura, List of publications (partly in Japanese language)

Copyright 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

AMED missions start with IRUD: Initiative on Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases – Challenge to overcome Balkanization

Makoto Suematsu

keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo, Tuesday 18 February 2016

Makoto Suematsu, President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED: “The situation in Japan is so crazy, but now I will stay in Japan because I have a mission”

by Makoto Suematsu (President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED)

summary written by Gerhard Fasol

Our goal is to fast-track medical R&D that directly benefits people not only by extending life, but also by improving quality of life.

Supporting research in “three different concepts of life”:

• life sciences
• daily life
• quality of life

AMED works with three Japanese Government Ministries: METI & MEXT & MHLW

AMED total budget in FY2015 is US$ 1.4 billion.

The challenge is to combine the efforts of these three Ministries which all have different rules and requirements. It is our job at AMED to overcome this “balkanization” between Ministries, as pointed out by Denis Normile’s article: “Japan’s ‘NIH’ starts with modest funding but high ambitions”, SCIENCE, 348, Issue 6235, pp 616, DOI: 10.1126/science.348.6235.616

Starting with (1) rare diseases and (2) cancer

We are using a matrix approach and start with (1) rare diseases and (2) cancer to trial our approach to optimize medical R&D.

On one axis of the matrix we have:

• Drug research
• Regenerative medicine research
• Cancer research
• Neurological, psychiatric and brain research
• Rare/intractable disease research
• Emerging research

On the other axis of the matrix we have:

• Industrial-academic collaboration: support for practical applications such as industrial-academic collaboration
• International affairs: promotion of strategic international research
• Genome research and infrastructure: support for accommodating R&D platforms such as BioBank etc
• Clinical research and trials: support for high-quality clinical studies/clinical trials
• Innovative drug discovery and development: support through the Drug Discovery Support Network for realizing drug discovery in academia

Why did we start from Rare & Undiagnosed Diseases (IRUD) in 2015?

1. Our aim is to support medical research considering three different types of life
   • Life science
   • Daily life
   • Quality of life
2. Stop “research for budgets”, empower “budgets for research”
3. Global data sharing (overcoming researchers’ “biological behavior”)
4. Diversity of diseases causes fragmental budgets, centralization of expensive analyzing machines
5. Microattribution
6. Establishing new matrices to check the quality of projects
7. Farewell to “Darth Vader-type research”, patients should be covered by network-type systems
8. Not only diagnosis, but also drug discovery for R and C (attracting great interest by Megapharma for orphan drugs)

Globally shared “death valley”

• University vs Medical School & Hospital
• Patients’ need vs physicians’ desire
• Sequencer vs physicians
• Scientists vs bureaucrats
• Bureaucrats vs bureaucrats
• University vs industry
• University vs university
• Medicine vs other sciences

SWAN = Syndrome without a name, leading to a diagnostic odyssey

BBC reports on the case of Jessica Hawley, and her and her family’s suffering under a “Syndrome Without A Name” (SWAN).

Lauren Roberts, of SWAN UK says:

“You have no idea what the future holds for a child. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you don’t know if they’ll ever walk, or talk, or what their life expectancy might be. You spend your whole life going through this constant emotional rollercoaster of test after test coming back negative and no-one being able to give you any answers. They can have their entire genetic code sequenced, but we still can’t find the root of the problem. It’s mainly because it’s such a tiny change in their genetic code that doesn’t get picked up in the tests.”

AMED has launched the Initiative for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (IRUD)

We set up IRUD committees at all hub medical institutions building an all-Japan network for IRUD. These IRUD committees build regional alliances bringing together home doctors, IRUD analysis centers for genetic testing, e.g. exome sequencing.

The IRUD committees interact with the IRUD Data Base System for IRUD.

With regional IRUD committees in combination with a central IRUD data base, we can find patients with similar symptoms which might have the same rare disease.

Indeed, MacArthur et al. in “Guidelines for investigating causality of sequence variants in human disease”, Nature 508, 469–476 (24 April 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13127 write:

In order to identify a new disease-causing gene which has been unknown as a disease-causing gene, it is necessary to find out multiple patients who have a combination of similar clinical phenotypes and sequence variants in same gene

To decide on Rare (R) and Undiagnosed (U) diseases, we use a series of filters, including global research on multifactorial genetic disorders, and we use IRUD diagnostic committees including a wide range of specialists, clinical conferences with clinical geneticists, and alliances with home doctors.

Janel Johnson et al in “Exome sequencing reveals riboflavin transporter mutations as a cause of motor neuron disease”, Brain, 2012 Sep; 135(9): 2875–2882, doi:10.1093/brain/aws161 showed that precise genome diagnosis can identify treatable variants of genetic diseases.

Via AMED, Japan joined the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) from July 30, 2015:

• data sharing for patients
• global coding of phenotypes
• micro attribution
• machine-readable consent
• harmonized IRB

On January 11, 2016, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between NIH and AMED in the guest all of the US National Academy of Science:

• empowering historical collaboration in infectious diseases and surveillance
• overcoming dementia through strong basic science and brain initiatives
• data sharing in rare and undiagnosed diseases

As an example, it was possible to identify patients with corresponding rare genetic diseases both in the USA and Japan.

AMED: Perspectives for fast-track medical R&D to improve global quality of life

• Eliminate obstacles of inflexible funding systems caused by “Balkanism” (conflicts of different funding systems by different agencies). AMED has completed de reform of funding rules on January 13, 2016
• Help ARO network to fully utilize a flexibel funding system
• “Making a little leak will sink a huge old ship”. Start from IRUD:
  1. Data sharing
  2. Global phenotype coding
  3. Central IRB (pilot)
  4. Collaboration with IRDiRC, UDN (NIH) from FY2015
  5. Global alliance for IRUD data sharing and infection surveillance
• Activate basic research to foster young “masters” in Japan through activating global collaboration. AMED global partnership: Gero-sciences, structural biology, mass spectrometry, metabolomics, etc.
• improve the quality of big data science to evaluate clinical research (eg NCD, JANIS etc)
• ONLINE, and IN ENGLISH for Japanese funding systems

(c) Copyright 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: 20 February 2015 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

Gerhard Fasol, Chair

One highlight of this year’s 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum was when Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura who’s invention of GaN LEDs eliminates the need to build thirty 1GW class nuclear power stations in the USA alone by 2030, asked the world’s most experienced nuclear power station operators and regulators, Chuck Casto, which source of energy he thought was best for Japan. Read Chuck Casto’s answer here.

Keynote talks:

• Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting
• Gerhard Fasol: Ludwig Boltzmann – the revolutionary, Boltzmann’s work, Boltzmann’s constant and entropy
• Chuck Casto: Global leadership in the extreme: crisis leadership in post-Fukushima
• Hiroyuki Yoshikawa: Macroscopic Engineering

Energy. Entropy. Leadership.

Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: 20 February 2015 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

Ludwig Boltzmann discovered many of nature’s laws of energy and entropy, and his leadership has impact even today. We use Ludwig Boltzmann’s laws and mathematical tools every day.

Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: Keynote speakers

• Shuji Nakamura Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara. Inventor of blue GaN LEDs and lasers. [summary and discussions]
• Gerhard Fasol Physicist, opto-electronics and spin-electronics. CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK. Board Director of GMO Cloud KK. Served on the Faculty of Tokyo University, Cambrige University, and Trinity College, Cambridge. [summary and discussions]
• Chuck Casto Licensed Nuclear Power Station Operator. Was NRC regulator responsible for 23 nuclear power stations. Leader of the US Integrated Government and NRC efforts in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. [summary and discussions]
• Hiroyuki Yoshikawa Pioneer of robotics and precision manufacturing. Emeritus President of the University of Tokyo. Japan Prize 1997. [summary and discussions]

Ludwig Boltzmann Forum: Program

• 14:00 Welcome by Dr. Bernhard Zimburg, Ambassador of Austria to Japan
• 14:10 Gerhard Fasol: today’s agenda
• 14:20 – 15:20 Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting
• 15:40 – 16:30 Gerhard Fasol: Ludwig Boltzmann – the revolutionary
• 16:30 – 17:00 Chuck Casto: POWER OUTAGE: Japan nuclear power program post-Fukushima?
• 17:15 – 17:45 Hiroyuki Yoshikawa: Macroscopic Engineering
• 17:45 – 17:50 Gerhard Fasol: Summary
• 17:50 – Reception at Ambassador’s Residence

Shuji Nakamura: Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting

keynote summary and discussions

Gerhard Fasol: Ludwig Boltzmann – the revolutionary

keynote summary and discussions

Chuck Casto: POWER OUTAGE: Japan nuclear power program post-Fukushima?

keynote summary and discussions

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa: Macroscopic Engineering

keynote summary and discussions

Copyright (c) 2015 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Developments of InGaN-based double hetero-structure high brightness blue LEDs and future lighting

Shuji Nakamura

keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Austrian Embassy in Tokyo, 20th February 2015

by Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014. Inventor of blue GaN LEDs and lasers. Professor, Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center, Materials and ECE Departments, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

summary by Gerhard Fasol

Why Shuji Nakamura’s Nobel Prize is “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources” and not for “development of mass production technology of blue LEDs”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize of Physics 2014 to Isamu Akasaki (1/3), Hiroshi Amano (1/3) and Shuji Nakamura (1/3), “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources“

In an interview for the Japanese Mainichi-Shinbun, the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Per Delsing summarized the key discoveries of each Nobel Laureate from the point of view of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics:

• Isamu Akasaki: High quality GaN with AlN buffer
• Hiroshi Amano: Demonstration of GaN pn junction
• Shuji Nakamura: Many contributions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs

The discovery of blue GaN LEDs is a discovery in the field of Physics achieved by three people, their contributions are:

• Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano
  1. AlN buffer (to grow AlN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
  2. p-GaN by electron beam irradiation
  3. realization of GaN pn junction

• Shuji Nakamura
  1. GaN buffer (to grow GaN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
  2. p-GaN by thermal annealing and the theoretical clarification of the mechanism for p-type conductivity
  3. the invention of InGaN-based high brightness double-heterostructure blue LEDs (the Nobel Prize was given to the invention of this LED)

Nobel Prizes are not awarded for the development of “mass manufacturing technologies”…

Alfred Nobel’s will reads:

“The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics;…”

It is perfectly clear in Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prize Committee awards Nobel Prizes in Physics for “the most important discoveries or inventions within the field of physics” – not for the development of manufacturing technologies.

Shuji Nakamura explained these facts on numerous occasions to Japanese media, and also today at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. It is difficult to understand why Japanese media and Government organizations did not take this information in.

It is a mystery why Japan’s National Television NHK, several Japanese major newspapers, The Journal of the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan’s Science Technology Agency JST and several other Japanese organizations insist that the Nobel Prize should have been awarded as follows:

1. Professors Akasaki and Amano for the development of the blue LED
2. Professor Nakamura for the development of manufacturing technology – although it is clear that the Nobel Prize is only awarded for profound discoveries and inventions in the field of physics and not for the development of manufacturing technologies

Clearly there is a disconnect between these major Japanese media organizations, two major Japanese Government Research Organizations NEDO and JST and reality regarding the reason why Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014.

Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) devices vs pn-Junction vs Double Heterostructure (DH) light emitting diodes (LED):

Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) devices achieve relatively low intensity, weak light emission at the metal / insulator / n-type or p-type semiconductor interface, thus only n-type or p-type doping is necessary. In the case of GaN, n-type GaN was first demonstrated by Maruska in 1973 (H. P. Maruska, D. A. Stevenson, J. I. Pankove, Appl. Phys. Lett., 22 (1973) p 303-305. In these MIS GaN LEDs visible violet electroluminscence was observed, however it was too dim for practical applications, and the necessary voltage was too high for practical application – 15 Volt.

p-type GaN and InGaN was demonstrated by Akasaki and Amano with electron beam annealing, and the real breakthrough was by Shuji Nakamura by annealing in Nitrogen gas.

On October 20, 1993, the Japanese Journal Nikkan Kogyo announced that “MIS type blue LEDs with a brightness of 200mCd were developed by Toyoda Gosei Co Ltd through industry-University cooperation funded by Japan’s Science and Technology Agency (JST). However, both the MIS LEDs demonstrated by Maruska et al in 1973, and those introduced by Toyoda Gosei in 1993 were too weak for real applications.

Another intermediate step in development are p-n junction LEDs, without double heterostructure. Such LEDs also have relatively low light efficiency, since electrons and holes have small overlap and therefore low recombination probability. The quantum confinement of electrons and holes in the same location in space is necessary to achieve high recombination efficiency and thus high brightness.

For high brightness GaN LEDs it was necessary to develop viable n-type / p-type InGaN heterostructure LEDs. This was done by Shuji Nakamura, and for example announced by the Japanese Journal Nikkei Sangyo on November 1993: “p-n junction InGaN double heterostructure (DH) LEDs with a brightness of more then 1000 mCd were developed by Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd”, when Shuji Nakamura was at Nichia from 1979-1999. It is for the invention and development of these LEDs that Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Shuji Nakamura delivered his Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2014, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University:

• Interview with the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Per Delsing:
  Interview about the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics (6 minutes)
• Introduction by Professor Per Delsing, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
• Nobel Lecture by Shuji Nakamura (26 minutes)
• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/nakamura-lecture-slides.pdf

1. Introduction: What is an LED?

Light emitting diodes (LED) produce light of a single color, in a narrow frequency interval (e.g. red, yellow, blue, green) by combining holes and electrons in a semiconductor.

To produce white light needed for lighting, either LEDs of different color can be combined, or blue light can be converted into white light using yellow phosphor.

Applications for InGaN-based LEDs include:

• solid state lighting, replacing light bulbs and fluorescent tubes (and fire in developing countries, or emergencies)
• decorative lighting
• automotive lighting
• displays (e.g. flat panel displays for mobile phones, PCs, TVs)
• agriculture
• indoor lighting

Energy savings impact – for the USA alone:

Approx. 40% electricity savings (261 TeraWatthours) in USA in 2030 due to LEDs.
InGaN LEDs eliminate the need for 30++ 1000MW power plants by 2030.
InGaN LEDs avoid generating about 185 million tons of CO2.

Light efficiency:

• oil lamp (15,000BC): 0.1 lm/W
• light bulb (19th century): 16 lm/W
• fluorescent lamp (20th century): 70 lm/W
• LED (21st century): 300 lm/W

2. Material of choice: ZnSe vs GaN

Both ZnSe (II-VI compounds) and GaN (III-V compounds) have the electronic band gap and other properties to efficiently generate blue light. In 1989 the situation was:

• ZnSe can be grown on GaAs substrates with 0% lattice mismatch and few dislocations.
  • high crystal quality: dislocation density < 1 x 10^3 cm^-2
  • very active research in 1989: > 99% of researchers on blue LEDs
  • interest at 1992 JSAP Conference: 500 people audience

• GaN grown on Sapphire (Al2O3) has a 16% lattice mismatch leading to a high defect (dislocation) density.
  • Poor crystal quality: dislocation density > 1 x 10^9 cm^-2
  • little research in 1989: < 1% of researchers on blue LEDs
  • interest at 1992 JSAP Conference: < 10 people audience
  • GaN research was actively discouraged: “GaN has no future”, “GaN people have to move to ZnSe material”….

1989 was the starting point of Shuji Nakamura’s research. Based on his experience at University of Miami, Shuji Nakamura wanted to achieve a PhD degree by writing research papers. The GaN field had the advantage that there were very few researchers and papers, so it was a great topic to publish lots of papers! Working at a small company the budget was small, and there was only one researcher: Shuji Nakamura.

It was commonly accepted in the 19970s-1980s, that LEDs need dislocation density < 1 x 10^3 cm^-2. Shuji Nakamura never thought at that time that he could invent blue LEDs using GaN….

3. The beginning: GaN on Sapphire

Before the 1990s, GaN was grown using conventional MOCVD systems, as described for example in H. Amano, N. Sawaki, I. Akasaki, Y. Toyoda, Appl. Phys. Lett. 48 (1986), 353-355.

Conventional MOCVD systems have high carrier gas velocity (about 4.25 m/s), poor uniformity, poor scalability, poor reproducibility, poor control. An AlN buffer layer was introduced to create crack free GaN growth, however, Al causes significant problems in the MOCVD reactor.

Shuji Nakamura’s most significant invention: two-flow MOCVD

To overcome the problems of conventional MOCVD, Shuji Nakamura invented “two-flow MOCVD” where a second “subflow” vertical to the surface of the substrate gently “pushes” the gases down onto the substrate and improves the thermal boundary layer: S. Nakamura et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 58 (1991) 2012-2023.

Two-flow MOCVD enables the reproducible growth of uniform, high quality GaN. Shuji Nakamura told us, that two-flow MOCVD was his most important invention.

With this new two-flow MOCVD method, Shuji Nakamura grew the first MOCVD GaN buffer layers on 2″ Sapphire substrates, and achieved the highest Hall mobilities reported at that time: S. Nakamura, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 30 (1991) L1705-L1707.

Overcoming passivation of p-type GaN

Shuji Nakamura discovered that hydrogen ions (H+) from dissociation of ammonia (NH3) contained in the growth gases is the source of passivation of p-type GaN which prevented the growth of p-type GaN, see:
S. Nakamura et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31 (1992) L139-L142, and
S. Nakamura et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31 (1992) 1258-1266.

Thermal annealing in hydrogen ion free atmosphere overcomes passivation

Previously all researchers used an atmosphere containing H+ to anneal p-type GaN, which was passivated by this process. Shuji Nakamura discovered that it was necessary to anneal in a H+ free atmosphere to achieve p-type GaN.

From p-n GaN homojunctions to InGaN double heterostructures (DH)

Akasaki and Amano developed p-n GaN homojunctions. These have good crystal quality, but very dim light emission, are very inefficient, power output is below mW, and the emission is around 360nm in the Ultra-Violet (UV). These structures are not suitable for practical LEDs.

To overcome these difficulties, double heterostructure are necessary, which were invented by Z. I. Alferov and H. Kroemer, who were awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Double heterostructures (DH) create a quantum well, were electrons and holes are confined, high carrier concentrations are achieved and the radiative recombination rates are enhanced.

4. Enabling the LED: InGaN

GaN heterojunctions are constructed by growing a sandwich structure consisting of n-GaN, InGaN, p-GaN. The band gap / color is adjusted by adjusting the Indium concentration in InxGa1-xN alloy. However this presents difficult challenges:

• It is hard to incorporate Indium, because of its high vapor pressure, Indium tends to boil off. Growth at lower temperatures to prevent Indium boil-off results in poor crystal quality
• It is necessary to grow very thin layers to build quantum wells. Growing very thin layers requires very fine control over the growth conditions and high interface quality.
• Indium introduces strain in the crystal because Indium is about 20% bigger than Gallium.

Because of these difficulties, research in the 1970s-1980s could not achieve InGaN of sufficiently high quality for room temperature band-to-band emission.

Shuji Nakamura’s two-flow MOCVD method succeeded to grow high quality InGaN with band-to-band emission and with controllable Indium concentration, so that the growth of InGaN with different band-gap and therefore controllable color spectrum became possible: S. Nakamura et al Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31 (1992) L1457-L1459.

With this breakthrough, Shuji Nakamura succeeded to grow the first high brightness InGaN LEDs: S. Nakamura et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 54 (1994) 1687-1689.

Shuji Nakamura could grow the first InGaN quantum well blue, green and yellow LEDs using these methods: S. Nakamura et. al. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 34 (1995) L797-L799 and the first violet InGaN Multi-quantum-well laser diode: S. Nakamura et. al. Jpn. J. Appl. Physics 35 (1996) L74-L76.

InGaN LEDs are far less sensitive to defect density than other materials such as GaAs, GaP or GaN,
Lester et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 66 (1995) 1249,
Chichibu, Nakamura et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 69 (1996) 4188,
Nakamura, Science, 281 (1998) 956.

5. Historical perspective

While red GaAs/GaAsP LEDs where invented in the 1970s, progress in luminous efficiency of GaN and InGaN based green and blue LEDs, invented around 1992-1993 by Shuji Nakamura, is much faster. Today white LEDs far exceed light bulbs and fluorescent lamps in luminous efficiency.

USC’s vision: LED based white light is great, laser based white light is even better!

• LEDs: equivalent of a 60W light requires 28mm^2 chip, and external quantum efficiency peaks around 70% rapidly decreases with increasing current density beyond 0.1 kA/cm^2
• Lasers: equivalent of a 60W light requires 0.3mm^2 chip, and external quantum efficiency remains around 70% up to current densities of 2 kA/cm^2

References

• Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 Facts.
• Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize Lecture
• Shuji Nakamura, Stephen Pearton, Gerhard Fasol, “The blue laser diode”, Springer Verlag, 2nd edition
  buy direct from Springer-Verlag (paper, and e-book version available), or
  via Amazon.com

Copyright (c) 2015 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Ludwig Boltzmann – the revolutionary, Boltzmann’s work, Boltzmann’s constant and entropy

Gerhard Fasol

keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, 20 February 2015

by Gerhard Fasol, Physicist, opto-electronics and spin-electronics. CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK. Board Director of GMO Cloud KK. Served on the Faculty of Tokyo University, Cambrige University, and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Boltzmann constant k, the definition of the unit of temperature and energy

Temperature is one of the physics quantities we use most, and understanding all aspects of temperature is at the core of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work. People measured temperature long before anyone knew what temperature really is: temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. When we touch a body to “feel” its temperature, what we are really doing is to measure the “buzz”, the thermal vibrations of the atoms making up that body.

Boltzmann worked out the distribution of energy, thermal vibrations of atoms in a solid, thermal kinetic energy of atoms or molecules in a gas, or the thermal energy in more complex classical systems is distributed as a function of temperature in the case of equilibrium. Boltzmann has also worked on systems in transition, and has developed powerful mathematical tools, the Boltzmann Equations, to understand systems in transitions or flow.

For an ideal gas, the kinetic energy per molecule is equal to 3/2 k.T, where k is Boltzmann’s constant. Generalized, the energy is 1/2 k.T per degree of freedom. Therefore Boltzmann’s constant directly links energy and Temperature.

However, when we measure “Temperature” in real life, we are not really measuring the true thermodynamic temperature, what we are really measuring is T90, a temperature scale ITS-90 defined in 1990, which is anchored by the definition of temperature units in the System International, the SI system of defining a set of fundamental physical units. Our base units are of fundamental importance for example to transfer semiconductor production processes around the world. For example, when a semiconductor production process requires a temperature of 769.3 Kelvin or mass of 1.0000 Kilogram, then accurate definition and methods of measurement are necessary to achieve precisely the same temperature or mass in different laboratories or factories around the world.

The SI system of physical units is switching to a new fundament

Read about the new SI system of physical units in more detail here.

Each fundamental constant Q is a product of a number {Q} and a base unit [Q]:

Q = {Q} x [Q],

for example Boltzmann’s constant is:
k = 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.

Thus we have two ways to define the SI system of SI base units:

1. we can fix the units [Q], and then measure the numerical values {Q} of fundamental constants in terms of these units (method valid today to define the SI system)
2. we can fix the numbers {Q} of fundamental constants, and then define the units [Q] thus that the fundamental constants have the numerical values {Q} (future method of defining the SI system)

Over the next few years the SI system of units will be switched from the today’s method (1.) where units are fixed and numerical values of fundamental constants are “variable”, i.e. determined experimentally, to the new method (2.) where the numerical values of the set of fundamental constants is fixed, and the units are defined such, that their definition results in the fixed numerical values of the set of fundamental constants. This switch to a new definition of the SI system requires international agreements, and decisions by international organizations, and this process is expected to be completed by 2018.

Today’s method (1.) above is problematic: The SI unit of temperature, Kelvin is defined as the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature at the triple point of water. The problem is that the triple point depends on many factors including pressure, and the precise composition of water, in terms of isotopes and impurities. In the current definition the water to be used is determined as “VSNOW” = Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water. Of course this is highly problematic, and the new method (2.) will not depend on VSNOW any longer.

In the new system (2.) the Kelvin will be defined as:

Kelvin is defined such, that the numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k is equal to exactly 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.

Measurement of the Boltzmann constant k:

Read about Boltzmann’s constant k in more detail here.

In order to link the soon to be fixed numerical value of Boltzmann’s constant to currently valid definitions of the Kelvin, and in particular to determine the precision and errors, it is necessary to measure the value of Boltzmann’s current in terms of today’s units as accurately as possible, and also to understand and estimate all errors in the measurement. Several measurements of Boltzmann’s constants are being performed in laboratories around the world, particularly at several European and US laboratories. Arguably today’s best measurement has been performed by Dr Michael de Podesta MBE CPhys MInstP, Principal Research Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory NPL in Teddington, UK, who has kindly discussed his measurements and today’s status of the work on the system of SI units and its redefinition with me, and has greatly assisted in the preparation of this article. Dr Podesta’s measurements of Boltzmann’s constant have been published in:
Michael de Podesta et al. “A low-uncertainty measurement of the Boltzmann constant”, Metrologia 50 (2013) 354-376.

Dr Podesta’s measurements are extremely sophisticated, needed many years of work, and cooperations with several other laboratories. Dr. Podesta and collaborators constructed a highly precise resonant cavity filled with Argon gas. Dr. Podesta measured both the microwave resonance modes of the cavity to determine the precise radius and geometry, and determined the speed of sound in the Argon gas from acoustic resonance modes. Dr Podesta performed exceptionally accurate measurements of the speed of sound in this cavity, which can be said to be the most accurate thermometer globally today. The speed of sound can be directly related to 3/2 k.T, the mean molecular kinetic energy of the Argon molecules. In these measurements, Dr. Podesta very carefully considered many different types of influences on his measurements, such as surface gas layers, shape of microwave and acoustic sources and sensors etc. He achieved a relative standard uncertainty of 0.71. 10-6, which means that his measurements of Boltzmann’s constant are estimated to be accurate to within better than on millionth. Dr. Podesta’s measurements directly influences the precision with which we measure temperature in the new system of units.

Over the last 10 years there is intense effort in Europe and the USA to build rebuild the SI unit system. In particular NIST (USA), NPL (UK), several French institutions and Italian institutions, as well as the German PTB (Physikalische Technische Bundesanstalt) are undertaking this effort. To my knowledge there is only very small or no contribution from Japan to this effort, which was surprising for me.

What is today’s best value for the Boltzmann constant k:

Today’s accepted best value of Boltzmann’s constant is the “2010 Codata value”:

k = 1.380 6488 . 10-23 JK-1, and the standard uncertainty is:
su = 0.000 0013 . 10-23 JK-1

Ludwig Boltzmann – the leader

More about Ludwig Boltzmann.

Ludwig Boltzmann was not only a monumental scientist, but also an exceptional leader, teacher, educator and promoter of exceptional talent, and he promoted many women.

One of the women Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was Henriette von Aigentler, who was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University. Ludwig Boltzmann advised and helped her to appeal this decision, in 1874, Henriette von Aigentler passed her exams as a high-school teacher, and on July 17, 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann married Henriette von Aigentler, my great-grand mother.

Another woman Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was his student Lise Meitner (Nov 1878 – Oct 27, 1968), who later was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, work for which Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner was also the second woman to earn a Doctorate degree in Physics from the University of Vienna. Element 109, Meitnerium, is named after Lise Meitner.

Ludwig Boltzmann – the scientist

More about Ludwig Boltzmann.

Ludwig Boltzmann’s greatest contribution to science is that he linked the macroscopic definition of Entropy which came from optimizing steam engines at the source of the first industrial revolution to the microscopic motion of atoms or molecules in gases, this achievement is summarized by the equation S = k log W, linking entropy S with the probability W. k is the Boltzmann constant, one of the most important constants in nature, linked directly to temperature in the SI system of physical units. This monumental work is maybe Boltzmann’s most important creation but by far not the only one. He discovered many laws, and created many mathematical tools, for example Boltzmann’s Equations, which are used today as tools for numerical simulations of gas flow for the construction of jet engines, airplanes, automobiles, in semiconductor physics, information technology and many other areas. Although independently discovered, Shannon’s theory of noise in communication networks, and Shannon’s entropy in IT is also directly related to Boltzmann’s entropy work.

Copyright (c) 2015 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Macroscopic Engineering

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

keynote talk given at the 7th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo, 20 February 2015

by Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, Pioneer of robotics and precision manufacturing, Emeritus President of the University of Tokyo, Japan Prize 1997

summary by Gerhard Fasol – discussions at the end of this page

Part I: Robotless Robot (automatic assembly without robot)

For many engineering processes the interaction of geometrical shapes is important.

“Stable states” are states where for example triangles are placed with their sides in contact. As an example, if we consider two triangles, we have 9 stable states and 36 possible transitions.

Let us consider interactions between cylinders and holes in a plate – such as situation could arise in an industrial process. In this case we have metastable states, where the cylinders are upright, lying on their side, or placed oblique in one of the holes, and we have stable states, where the cylinders rest in on one of the holes.

We can consider an experiment where we have cylinders on a plate with several holes, and subject the plate to vibrations. Depending on the magnitude of vibrations, the cylinders will move around and may end up all placed in holes, which would be the finished product of this thought experiment.

The distribution of energy of cylinders at collisions between cylinders and the disc follows a Boltzmann Distribution.

Part II: Macroscopic Service Science (Servicentric human society)

Reconceptualization of manufacturing

Hypothesis: Service makes a society

The basic reason why human beings live together and work collectively or socially is that their mutual services are essential for their survival on earth. Humans cannot live alone.

Lemma: Manufacturing industry is part of the service industry.

In the service industry, a service donor (e.g. a server in a restaurant) manufactures a function and simultaneously delivers this as a service to a recipients (customer).

In the manufacturing industry, a donor manufactures functions which are embedded into products, which are delivered to recipients at a later time.

Basic structure of primitive service

• Service design:
  • motivation
  • design
  • function
  • design
  • service

• Product design:
  • motivation
  • design
  • function
  • design
  • product
  • use (service)

  The flow of services can be seen as similar to flow in fluid dynamics: services flow from donor through a service pipe to recipients.

  A donor’s motivation (subjective) is transformed into function (objective) at the first stage of service design. Function is input to themselves (donor) increasing the potential of latent function. When the potential exceeds the recipient’s potential of latent function, a service starts. Motivation is subjective, while function is objective (see: Social Theory and Social Structure by Robert K. Merton)

  Replacing GDP by the total functional flow (services in a society) as an indicator for wealth of society

  Motivation of a donor increases its latent function and when it exceeds the latent function of a recipient, function flow of service starts. Rate of flow is proportional to the functional gap, and admittance of the path.

  A society is composed of people with different latent function of a kind. Each member has its capacity of receiving the function. As a result, the system of functional flow in the society is determined.

  Services make a society.

  From “manufacturing a product” to “manufacturing amplifiers on service network”

  Our industrial society can be seen of the sum of a primitive service-only society PLUS manufacturing industries, resulting in amplified services.

  As an example:

  • Primitive service: medical service at home e.g. mother-child
  • Amplified service: medical service at hospital by a highly trained doctor using medical equipment and know-how
  • Amplifiers: life science, medical skills, medical equipment, hospital facilities, IT

  Industrial products and know-how amplify simple services.

  Chains of primitive services

  1. Donate a service, e.g. a vegetable dish
  2. This service consists of three primitive services:
     1. produce food (donor: farmer, vehicle: fields, vegetables, recipient: wholesaler)
     2. sales service (donor: retailer, recipient: purchaser)
     3. cooking service (donor: cook, vehicle: dishes, recipient: eater)
  3. vehicle is a medium for the service. Tool is a typical vehicle

Copyright (c) 2015 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

6th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum Tokyo 2014 – Energy. Entropy. Leadership.

Gerhard Fasol, Chair

20 February 2014 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

Keynote speakers

• Kenichi Iga Former President and Emeritus Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Inventor of VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers), widely used in photonics systems.
• Gerhard Fasol CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK. Served as Associate Professor of Tokyo University, Lecturer at Cambridge University, and Manger of Hitachi Cambridge R&D Lab.
• Kiyoshi Kurokawa Academic Fellow of GRIPS and former Chairman of Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission by National Diet of Japan
• Haruo Kawahara Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of JVC KENWOOD Corporation
• Yoshinao Mishima President of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Materials scientist specialized on nano-materials and high-performance materials

Program

• 14:00: Welcome by Dr. Berhard Zimburg, Ambassador of Austria to Japan (represented by Peter Storer, Minister for Cultural Affairs)
• 14:10: Gerhard Fasol: today’s agenda
• 14:20-14:40 Kenichi Iga: hv vs kT – Optoelectronics and Energy
• 14:40-15:20 Gerhard Fasol:
  • Boltzmann’s constant, “What is temperature?” and the new definition of the SI system of physical units
  • Ludwig Boltzmann – Energy, Entropy, Leadership
• 15:40-16:20 Kiyoshi Kurokawa: Quo vadis Japan? – Uncertain times.
• 16:40-17:00 Haruo Kawahara: Revitalization of Japanese Industry – KENWOOD – JVCKENWOOD
• 17:00-17:20 Yoshinao Mishima: Educational reforms at Tokyo Institute of Technology
• 17:20-17:40 Gerhard Fasol: Summary

Welcome by Dr. Berhard Zimburg, Ambassador of Austria to Japan (represented by Peter Storer, Minister for Cultural Affairs)

Gerhard Fasol: today’s agenda

Today we celebrate Ludwig Boltzmann’s 170th birthday: Ludwig Boltzmann was born on February 20, 1844. Even though his work is quite some time ago, every Japanese engineer or scientist uses Ludwig Boltzmann’s results, laws, and the mathematical and scientific tools he developed every day.

Ludwig Boltzmann’s work is extremely relevant every day in all our lives.

In my talk I will also explain that Boltzmann’s constant k is is directly linked to the unit we use to measure “temperature”. We use temperature everyday in private life, medicine and work, however people measured temperature before it was understood, what temperature really is. Boltzmann’s work and Ludwig Boltzmann’s results are needed to understand what we are actually measuring when we measure temperature. In most cases today we use the system of “SI Units” to measure physical quantities such as weight, time, temperature, pressure, current, voltage, power etc. There is global effort currently to reform the system of SI Units, and put their definition on a modern and more rational basis. Boltzmann’s constant k is at the core of the system of SI Units, and therefore there are efforts proceeding in several laboratories to measure Boltzmann’s constant as accurately as possible. I’ll explain some of this results in my talk.

Boltzmann was not only one of the most important and productive physicists, he was also a great leader, he influenced many, until today. Inspired by Ludwig Boltzmann as a leader, I have created the Ludwig Boltzmann Symposia for the following purpose and principles:

• enable and encourage change
• platform for creative leaders
• free discussion, freedom of speech
• no dogmas

Ryoji Noyori recently wrote and excellent article in The Yumiuri Shinbun (which is one of the daily newspapers with the highest circulation globally) entitled: “Can Japan’s science and technology compete globally?”
I have worked in Austria, Germany, France, UK, Japan, and all over the EU, and every country asks this question about their own country.
Ludwig Boltzmann competed successfully and globally, visited and taught in the US three times, studied English, he still has huge global impact today. We can learn from him how to compete globally.

Kenichi Iga: hv vs kT – Optoelectronics and Energy

Comments and discussions

(Former President and Emeritus Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Inventor of VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers), widely used in photonics systems)

My invention of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) dates back to March 22, 1977. Today VCSEL devices are used in many applications all over the world. I was awarded the 2013 Franklin Institute Award, the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science, “for the conception and development of the vertical cavity surface emitting laser and its multiple applications in optoelectronics“. Benjamin Franklin’s work is linked to mine: Benjamin Franklin in 1752 discovered that thunder originates from electricity – he linked electronics (electricity) with photons (light). After 1960 the era of lasers began, we learnt how to combine and control electrons and photons, and the era of optoelectronics.

If you read Japanese, you may be interested to read an interview with Genichi Hatakoshi and myself, intitled “The treasure micro box of optoelectronics” which was recently published in the Japanese journal OplusE Magazine by Adcom-Media.

Who are electrons? Electrons are just like a cloud expressed by Schroedinger’s equation, which Schroedinger postulated in 1926. Electrons can also be seen as randomly moving particles, described by the particle version of Schroedinger’s equation (1931).

Where does light come from? Light is generated by the accelerated motion of charged particles.

Electrons also show interference patterns. For example, if we combine the 1s and 2p orbitals around a nucleus, we observe interference.

In a semiconductor, electrons are characterized by a band structure, filled valence bands and largely empty conduction bands. The population of hole states in the valence bands and of electrons in the conduction bands are determined by the Fermi-Dirac distribution. In typical III-V semiconductors, generation and absorption of light is by transitions between 4s anti-bonding orbitals (the bottom of the conduction band) and 4p bonding orbitals (the top of the valence band).

In Japan, we are good at inventing new types of vertical structures:

• in 607, the Horyuji 5-Jyu-no Toh (5 story tower) was built in Nara, and today we have progressed to building the 634 meter high Tokyo Sky Tree Tower.
• in 1893, Kubota Co. Ltd. developed the vertical molding of water pipes
• in 1977 Shunichi Iwawaki invented vertical magnetic memory
• in 1977 Tatsuo Izawa developed VAD (vapor-phase axial deposition) of silica fibers
• in 1977 Kenichi Iga invented vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL)

History of communications spans from 10,000 years BC with the invention of language, and 3000 BC with the invention of written characters and papyrus, to the invention of the internet in 1957, the realization of the laser in 1960, the realization of optical fiber communications in 1984, and now since 2008 we see Web 2.x and Cloud.

Optical telegraphy goes back to 200 BC, when optical beacons were used in China: digital signals using multi-color smoke. Around 600 AD we had optical beacons in China, Korea and Japan, and in 1200 BC also in Mongolia and India.
In the 18th and 19th century, optical semaphores were used in France.

In the 20th century, optical beam transmission using optical rods and optical fiber transmissions were developed, which combined with the development of lasers created today’s laser communications. Yasuharu Suematsu and his student showed the world’s first demonstration of optical fiber communications demonstration on May 26, 1963 at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, using a He-Ne laser, an electro-optic crystal for modulation of the laser light by the electrical signal from a microphone, and optical bundle fiber, and a photo-tube at the other end of the optical fiber bundle to revert the optical signals back into electrical signals and finally to drive a loud speaker. For his pioneering work, Yasuharu Suematsu was awarded the International Japan Prize in 2014.

I recorded my initial idea for the surface emitting laser on March 22, 1977 in my lab book.

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) have many advantages:

1. ultra-low power consumption: small volume
2. pure spectrum operation: short cavity
3. continuous spectrum tuning: single resonance
4. high speed modulation: wide response range
5. easy coupling to optical fibers: circular mode
6. monolithic fabrication like LSI
7. wafer level probe testing
8. 2-dimensional array
9. vertical stack integration with micro-machine
10. physically small

VCSEL have found applications in many fields, including: data communications, sensing, printing, interconnects, displays.

As an example, the Tsubame-2 supercomputer, which in November 2011 was 5th of top-500 supercomputers, and on June 2, 2011 was greenest computer of Green500, uses 3500 optical fiber interconnects with a length of 100km. In 2012: Too500/Green500/Graph500

IBM Sequoia uses 330,000 VCSELs.

Fuji Xerox introduced the first demonstration of 2 dimensional 4×8 VCSEL printer array for high speed and ultra-fine resolution laser printing: 14 pages/minute and 2400 dots/inch.

Some recent news:
The laser market is estimated to be US$ 11 billion by 2017.
VCSELs move to optical interconnects.
By 2019 the optical interconnect market is estimated to reach US$ 5.2 billion.

In summary:

VCSEL photonics started from minor reputation and generated big innovation. VCSELs feature:

• low power consumption: good for green ICE
• high speed modulation beyond 20 GBits/second
• 2D array
• good productivity due to monolithic process

Future: will generate ideas never thought before.

Comments and discussions

Gerhard Fasol: Boltzmann’s constant, “What is temperature?” and the new definition of the SI system of physical units

(CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK. Served as Associate Professor of Tokyo University, Lecturer at Cambridge University, and Manger of Hitachi Cambridge R&D Lab.)

Comments and discussions

(in preparing this talk, I am very grateful for several email discussions and telephone conversations, and for unpublished presentations and documents, to Dr Michael de Podesta MBE CPhys MInstP, Principal Research Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory NPL in Teddington, UK, who has greatly assisted me in understanding the current status of work on reforming the SI system of units, and also his very important work on high-precision measurements of Boltzmann’s constant. Dr Michael de Podesta’s measurements of Boltzmann’s constant are arguable among the most precise, of not the most precise measurements of Boltzmann’s constant today, and therefore a very important contribution to our system of physical units).

Temperature is one of the physics quantities we use most, and understanding all aspects of temperature is at the core of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work. People measured temperature long before anyone knew what temperature really is: temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. When we touch a body to “feel” its temperature, what we are really doing is to measure the “buzz”, the thermal vibrations of the atoms making up that body.

For an ideal gas, the kinetic energy per molecule is equal to 3/2 k.T, where k is Boltzmann’s constant. Therefore Boltzmann’s constant directly links energy and Temperature.

However, when we measure “Temperature” in real life, we are not really measuring the true thermodynamic temperature, what we are really measuring is T90, a temperature scale ITS-90 defined in 1990, which is anchored by the definition of temperature units in the System International, the SI system of defining a set of fundamental physical units. Our base units are of fundamental importance for example to transfer semiconductor production processes around the world. For example, when a semiconductor production process requires a temperature of 769.3 Kelvin or mass of 1.0000 Kilogram, then accurate definition and methods of measurement are necessary to achieve precisely the same temperature or mass in different laboratories or factories around the world.

The SI system consists of seven units, which at the moment are defined as follows:

• second: The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.
• metre: The meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.
• kilogram: The kilogram is the unit of mass; it is equal to the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram.
• Ampere: The ampere is that constant current which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and placed 1 meter apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors a force equal to 2 x 10-7 newton per meter of length.
• Kelvin: The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water.
• mole:
  1. The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12
  2. When the mole is used, the elementary entities must be specified and may be atoms, molecules, ions, electrons, other particles, or specified groups of such particles.
• candela: The candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 x 1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian.

The definitions of base units has long history, and are evolving over time. Today several of the definitions are particularly problematic, among the most problematic are temperature and mass.

SI base units are closely linked to fundamental constants:

• second:
• metre: linked to c = speed of light in vacuum
• kilogram: linked to h = Planck constant.
• Ampere: linked to e = elementary charge (charge of an electron)
• Kelvin: linked to k = Boltzmann constnt
• mole: linked to N = Avogadro constant
• candela:

Each fundamental constant Q is a product of a number {Q} and a base unit [Q]:

Q = {Q} x [Q],

for example Boltzmann’s constant is:
k = 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.

Thus we have two ways to define the SI system of SI base units:

1. we can fix the units [Q], and then measure the numerical values {Q} of fundamental constants in terms of these units (method valid today to define the SI system)
2. we can fix the numbers {Q} of fundamental constants, and then define the units [Q] thus that the fundamental constants have the numerical values {Q} (future method of defining the SI system)

Over the next few years the SI system of units will be switched from the today’s method (1.) where units are fixed and numerical values of fundamental constants are “variable”, i.e. determined experimentally, to the new method (2.) where the numerical values of the set of fundamental constants is fixed, and the units are defined such, that their definition results in the fixed numerical values of the set of fundamental constants. This switch to a new definition of the SI system requires international agreements, and decisions by international organizations, and this process is expected to be completed by 2018.

Today’s method (1.) above is problematic: The SI unit of temperature, Kelvin is defined as the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature at the triple point of water. The problem is that the triple point depends on many factors including pressure, and the precise composition of water, in terms of isotopes and impurities. In the current definition the water to be used is determined as “VSNOW” = Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water. Of course this is highly problematic, and the new method (2.) will not depend on VSNOW any longer.

In the new system (2.) the Kelvin will be defined as:

Kelvin is defined such, that the numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k is equal to exactly 1.380650 x 10-23 JK-1.

In order to link the soon to be fixed numerical value of Boltzmann’s constant to currently valid definitions of the Kelvin, and in particular to determine the precision and errors, it is necessary to measure the value of Boltzmann’s current in terms of today’s units as accurately as possible, and also to understand and estimate all errors in the measurement. Several measurements of Boltzmann’s constants are being performed in laboratories around the world, particularly at several European and US laboratories. Arguably today’s best measurement has been performed by Dr Michael de Podesta MBE CPhys MInstP, Principal Research Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory NPL in Teddington, UK, who has kindly discussed his measurements and today’s status of the work on the system of SI units and its redefinition with me, and has greatly assisted in the preparation of this article. Dr Podesta’s measurements of Boltzmann’s constant have been published in:
Michael de Podesta et al. “A low-uncertainty measurement of the Boltzmann constant”, Metrologia 50 (2013) 354-376.

Dr Podesta’s measurements are extremely sophisticated, needed many years of work, and cooperations with several other laboratories. Dr. Podesta and collaborators constructed a highly precise resonant cavity filled with Argon gas. Dr. Podesta measured both the microwave resonance modes of the cavity to determine the precise radius and geometry, and determined the speed of sound in the Argon gas from acoustic resonance modes. Dr Podesta performed exceptionally accurate measurements of the speed of sound in this cavity, which can be said to be the most accurate thermometer globally today. The speed of sound can be directly related to 3/2 k.T, the mean molecular kinetic energy of the Argon molecules. In these measurements, Dr. Podesta very carefully considered many different types of influences on his measurements, such as surface gas layers, shape of microwave and acoustic sources and sensors etc. He achieved a relative standard uncertainty of 0.71. 10-6, which means that his measurements of Boltzmann’s constant are estimated to be accurate to within better than on millionth. Dr. Podesta’s measurements directly influences the precision with which we measure temperature in the new system of units.

Over the last 10 years there is intense effort in Europe and the USA to build rebuild the SI unit system. In particular NIST (USA), NPL (UK), several French institutions and Italian institutions, as well as the German PTB (Physikalische Technische Bundesanstalt) are undertaking this effort. To my knowledge there is only very small or no contribution from Japan to this effort, which was surprising for me.

Today’s accepted best value of Boltzmann’s constant is the “2010 Codata value”:

k = 1.380 6488 . 10-23 JK-1, and the standard uncertainty is:
su = 0.000 0013 . 10-23 JK-1

Comments and discussions

Gerhard Fasol: Ludwig Boltzmann – Energy, Entropy, Leadership

(CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK. Served as Associate Professor of Tokyo University, Lecturer at Cambridge University, and Manger of Hitachi Cambridge R&D Lab.)

Comments and discussions

Ludwig Boltzmann’s greatest contribution to science is that he linked the macroscopic definition of Entropy which came from optimizing steam engines at the source of the first industrial revolution to the microscopic motion of atoms or molecules in gases. This monumental work is maybe Boltzmann’s most important creation but by far not the only one. He discovered many laws, and created many mathematical tools, for example Boltzmann’s Equations, which is today are used today as tools for numerical simulations of gas flow for the construction of jet engines and automobiles.

Ludwig Boltzmann was not only a monumental scientist, but also an exceptional leader and teacher and promoter of exceptional talent, and he promoted many women.

One of the women Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was Henriette von Aigentler, who was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University. Ludwig Boltzmann advised and helped her to appeal this decision, in 1874, Henriette von Aigentler passed her exams as a high-school teacher, and on July 17, 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann married Henriette von Aigentler, my great-grand mother.

Another woman Ludwig Boltzmann promoted was his student Lise Meitner (Nov 1878 – Oct 27, 1968), who later was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, work for which Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner was also the second woman to earn a Doctorate degree in Physics from the University of Vienna. Element 109, Meitnerium, is named after Lise Meitner.

The first President of Osaka University (1931-1934), Nagaoka Hantaro (1865 – 1950) was Ludwig Boltzmann’s pupil around 1892 – 1893 at Muenchen University.

Ludwig Boltzmann was connected in intense discussions with all major scientists of his time, he travelled extensively including three trips to the USA in 1899, 1904 and 1905.

Ludwig Boltzmann published his first scientific publication at the age of 21 years in 1865. He was appointed Full Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Graz in 1869 at the age of 25 years, later in 1887-1888 he was Rektor (President) of the University of Graz at the age of 43 years.

He spent periods of his professional work in Vienna, at Graz University (1869-1873 and 1876-1890), at Muenchen University (1890-1894). When working at Muenchen University, he discovered that he or his family would not receive any pension from his employment at Muenchen University, and therefore decided to return to Vienna University in 1894, where his pension was assured. During 1900-1902 he spent two years working in Leipzig, where he cooperated with the Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald.

Ludwig Boltzmann did not shy away from forceful arguments to argue for his thoughts and conclusions, even if his conclusions were opposite to the views of established colleagues, or when he felt that philosophers intruded into the field of physics, i.e. used methods of philosophy to attempt solving questions which needed to be solved with physics measurements, e.g. to determine whether our space is curved or not. Later in his life he was therefore also appointed to a parallel Chair in Philosophy of Science, and Ludwig Boltzmann’s work in Philosophy of Science is also very fundamentally important.

I discovered the unpublished manuscripts of Boltzmann’s lectures on the Philosophy of Science, stimulated and encouraged by myself, and with painstaking work my mother transcribed these and other unpublished manuscripts, and prepared them for publication, to make these works accessible to the world, many years after Ludwig Boltzmann’s death.

Ludwig Boltzmann was a down to earth man. He rejected His Majesty, The Emperor of Austria’s offer of nobility, i.e. the privilege to be name Ludwig von Boltzmann instead of the commoner Ludwig Boltzmann. Ludwig Boltzmann said: “if our common name was good enough for my parents and ancestors, it will be good enough for my children and grand children…”

Summary: understanding Ludwig Boltzmann.

Boltzmann’s thoughts and ideas are a big part of our understanding of the world and the universe.

His mathematical tools are used every day by today’s engineers, bankers, IT people, physicists, chemists… and even may contribute to solve the world’s energy problems.

Ludwig Boltzmann stood up for his ideas and conclusions and did not give in to authority. He rejected authority for authority’s sake, and strongly pushed his convictions forward.

What can we learn from Ludwig Boltzmann?

• empower young people, recognize and support talent early.
• exceptional talent is not linear but exponential.
• move around the world. Connect. Interact.
• empower women.
• don’t accept authority for authority’s sake.
• science/physics/nature need to be treated with the methods of physics/science.
• no dogmas.
• support entrepreneurs, Ludwig Boltzmann did.

Comments and discussions

Kiyoshi Kurokawa: Quo vadis Japan? – Uncertain times.

(Academic Fellow of GRIPS and former Chairman of Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission by National Diet of Japan)

Comments and discussions

Professor Kurokawa set the stage by describing the uncertain times, risks and unpredictabilities in which we live – while at the same time internet connects us all, all while the world’s population increased from about 1 billion people in 1750 to about 9 billion people today.

Major global risks in terms of impact and likelihood are (General Annual Conference 2013 of the World Economic Forum):

• severe income disparity
• chronic fiscal imbalances
• rising greenhouse gas emissions
• cyber attacks
• water supply crisis
• management of population aging
• corruption

Top trends for 2014, ranked by global significance (World Economic Forum, Outlook on global agenda 2014):

• rising social tensions in Middle East and North Africa
• widening income disparity
• persistent structural unemployment
• intensifying cyber threats
• diminishing confidence in economic policies
• lack of values in leadership
• the expanding middle class in Asia

This changing world needs a change of paradigm:

• resilience instead of strength
• risk instead of safety

Many recent “Black Swan events” bring home that:

• accident happens
• machine breaks
• to err is human

Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa chaired the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) by the National Diet of Japan, which was active from December 8, 2011 to July 5, 2012. While Parliamentary commissions to investigate accidents, problems and disasters are quite frequent in most Western democracies, this was the first time ever in the history of Constitutional Democratic Japan, that a Parliamentary investigation commission was constituted.

Examples of Parliamentary commissions in other western democracies are:

• Three Mile Island, USA 1979
• Space Shuttle Challenger, USA 1986
• 9.11 Terrorist Attack, USA 2001 and many many many more in USA
• Oslo’s shooting incident, Norway 2011
• Mad Cow Disease, UK 1997-, and several Parliamentary commissions every year in UK

The records of the Parliamentary Commission for the Fukushima Disaster can be viewed here.

The key result of the Parliamentary Commission is, that the Fukushima nuclear disaster was caused by “regulatory capture”, a phenomenon for which there are many examples all over the world and which is not specific to Japan. Regulatory capture was studied by Goerge J Stigler, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982 for “for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation”.

Since the full report of the Independent Parliamentary Commission is long and complex to read, few people are likely to read the full reports and watch the videos of all sessions.

Therefore short summary videos the key results of the Independent Parliamentary Commission were prepared both in Japanese and in English.

The simplest explanation of The National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission Report (English):

1. What is the NAIIC?

2. Was the nuclear accident preventable?

3. What happened inside the nuclear plant?

4. What should have been done after the accident?

5. Could the damage be contained?

6. What are the issues with nuclear energy?

わかりやすいプロジェクト　国会事故調編

１。国会事故調ってなに？

２。事故は防げなかったの？

３。原発の中でなにが起こっていたの？

４。事故の後対応をどうしたらよかったの？

５。被害を小さくとどめられなかったの？

６。原発をめぐる社会の仕組みの課題ってなに？

We need leaders to be accountable, and we need to understand that “Groupthink” can lead to disasters.

We need the obligation to dissent instead of compliance.

The Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) was like a hole body CT scan of the Governance of Japan.

Richard Feynman when charing the Space Shuttle Accident investigation wrote in 1986: “for a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

For his work chairing the Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) Professor Kurokawa was selected as one of “100 Top Global Thinkers 2012” by Foreign Policy “for daring to tell a complacent country that groupthink can kill”.

Professor Kurokawa was awarded the AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award “for his courage in challenging some of the most ingrained conventions of Japanese governance and society.

New York Times, quotation of the day, September 4, 2013 Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa said: “Japan is clearly living in denial, water keeps building up inside the plant, and debris keeps piling up outside of it. This is all just one big shell game aimed at pushing off the problem until the future”.

Comments and discussions

Haruo Kawahara: Revitalization of Japanese Industry – KENWOOD – JVCKENWOOD

(Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of JVC KENWOOD Corporation)

Comments and discussions

JVC KENWOOD Corporation was incorporated on October 1, 2008, and has 20,033 employees as of October 1, 2013.

Corporate vision: Creating excitement and peace of mind for the people of the world.

Total sales for fiscal year ending March 2013 was YEN 306.6 Billion (approx. US$ 3 Billion).

JVC KENWOOD today has four business divisions:

• Car Electronics (CE): 33% of total sales
  • car navigation systems
  • car audio systems
  • CD/DVD drive mechanisms
  • optical pick-ups
• Professional Systems (PS): 30%
  • digital land mobile radio
  • amateur radio
  • security cameras
  • professional video cameras
  • emergency broadcasting equipment
• Optical & Audio (O&A): 22%
  • action camera
  • home audio systems
  • all-in one tower design audio systems
  • camcorder with wifi
  • 4K projektor
  • headphones
• Entertainment Software (SE): 13%
  • Victor Entertainment Group
  • Teichiku Entertainment

Issues of the electrical industry of Japan:

• 1970s: overwhelmed with vertical integration and self-sufficiency
• 1980s: appreciation of the yen (1985 Plaza Accord)
• 1990s: collapse of the Bubble (1991), relocation of production to Asia, three excesses:
  • debt
  • facility
  • employment
• 2000s: lost 20 years

Going forward, Japan has the option of growth under new business models, or continue to stagnate with matured industries.

While there is dramatic global market expansion in many business areas in the global electrical industry, e.g. for Lithium Ion Batteries, DVDs, Car navigation units, DRAM, Japan’s market shares are falling in most sectors. For example, Japanese market shares for LCD, DVD players, Lithium Ion batteries, or car navigation units have fallen from almost 100% global market share 5-10 years ago to 10%-20% today.

Restructuring mature industry can generate more economic benefit than innovating a new industry:

• large established market, although low growth
• reduced number of players in the market following consolidation

Revitalization of JVCKENWOOD:

• the current main business as the core – not new business
• speed, like “fresh food”
• eliminate hidden waste and loss costs
• eliminate vested rights

Kenwood in 2002 was in a disastrous condition:

• net income: YEN -27 Billion (= US$ -270 million)
• debt: YEN 110 Billion (= US$ 1.1 billion)
• accumulated losses: YEN 45 Billion (= US$ 450 million)
• net worth: YEN -17 Billion (= US$ -170 million)

Restructuring by March 2003:

1. Financial restructuring: Dept/equity swap. Moved from YEN 17 billion negative net worth to positive within 6 months
2. Business restructuring: focus on core business. Terminated cellular phone business.
3. Cost restructuring: 30% cost reduction. Closed 3 factories. Voluntary retirement.
4. Management restructuring: management consolidation. Eliminate huge wastes and losses in subsidiaries.

Restructuring in FY2003 achieved a V-shape recovery. Net income margin was improved from -8% in FY3/2002 to 2%-4% in recent years.

In mature markets, growth is achieved through M&A, reducing the number of players in the market. As the top player in the market, profitable growth improved:

Main four players in the car electronics after-market before Kenwood-JVC merger:

1. Pioneer
2. Kenwood
3. Sony
4. JVC

after the JVCKENWOOD merger, and restructure to minimize losses from the TV business:

1. JVCKENWOOD
2. …
3. …

JVC and KENWOOD formed a capital and business alliance in July 2007, followed by management integration in October 2008, and a full merger in October 2011. The business portfolio was restructured, and in particular big losses in the TV business were reduced. Fixed costs were reduced by 40% by selling off assets, reduction of production and sales sites, and 25% voluntary retirement.

This structural reform was completed in the FY3/2001, and led to another V-shaped recovery, and to profitable growth under the new medium term business plan.

The JVC-KENWOOD merger led to big jumps in market share in many markets, and thus to very much improved profitability.

How can Japan become competitive again?

Why did Japan’s mass production type electronics fail? Answer: Japanese management failed to deal with globalization and digitalization.

Other factors that contributed to Japan’s failure are vertical integration, technology leakage from exporting production facilities, insufficient added value compared to the high Japanese labor costs, and lack of money for investment, because Japanese companies largely relied on bank loans instead of equity.

Japan’s heavy electrical industry on the other hand is competitive – why?

1. Creative know-how in the heavy electrical industry is in human brains, therefore more difficult to leak to competitors under Japan’s employment circumstances.
2. huge capital investment is needed, and almost fully depreciated in Japan. Therefore the depreciation costs exceeds HR costs.

How can Japan become competitive again?

Japan needs to accelerate growth strategies in those areas, where Japan has competitive advantage, and where Japanese industries can differentiate themselves. Examples are industrial areas which depend on a long-term improvements and advanced technologies, and techniques of craftsmen, and in next generation technologies.

JVCKENWOOD takes action to innovate:

• JVCKENWOOD invested in a venture capital fund: the WiL Fund I, LP to reinforce alliances with potential ventures in Japan and overseas
• JVCKENWOOD invested in ZMP Inc. to promote car telematics and car auto-control

Comments and discussions

Yoshinao Mishima: Educational reforms at Tokyo Institute of Technology

(President of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Materials scientist specialized on nano-materials and high-performance materials)

Comments and discussions

• 1881: founded as The Tokyo Technical School
• 1929: elevated to a degree-conferring university as Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
• 2004: reorganized as an independent administrative institution “National University Corporation Tokyo Institute of Technology”

Statistics as of May 1, 2013:

• Undergraduate students: 4,790 (of which 180 are foreign students)
• Graduate students: 3,611 Masters students + 1,512 Doctorate students = 5,123 (of which 943 (18.4%) are foreign students)
• Research students: 90
• Academic staff: 1,148
• Administrative staff: 472

The mission of Tokyo Institute of Technology is to develop a new and vibrant society:

• produce graduates with a broad understanding of science and technology with both the ability and the determination to take on leading roles in society
• create and support innovative science and technology that will lead to sustainable social development

Detailed mission statements cover three areas:

• education: produce masters graduates who will thrive globally, and doctorate graduates who will come world’s top researchers are leaders
• contributions to society and international activities
• research: produce globally recognized results. Reform the research and support systems, in particular multi-step support for young researchers.

Tokyo Institute of Technology aims to become a world class university with greater diversity in faculty and students by 2030.

Major educational reform plan (2013-…)

1. Reborn masters and doctoral courses
2. Reorganize departments, curriculum, courses
3. Change from year-based study to credit based study
4. Increase teaching in English, and numbers of foreign students
5. Align with world top class universities for student transfers and credit transfers
6. Enhance professional practice education for industry

A key challenge is that students primarily focus on earning credits to graduate, and lack a sense of mission to develop professional skills or to cooperate in our diverse global society. We need to change this type of behavior to create scientific leaders for the global arena.

We want to create a more flexible curriculum, that can be completed in a shorter time, so that students have more time for personal professional development and international exchange activities and communication skills.

The Board of Directors decided on three pillars for education reform on September 6, 2013:

1. Build education system to become one of the world’s top universities
2. Innovate learning
3. Promote ambitious internationalization

We will move to a new and more flexible curriculum system, where undergraduate schools and graduate schools are blended.

We are introducing a number of initiatives including active learning, a faculty mentor system where every faculty member mentors 5-10 students, increased numbers of lectures in English, invited top global researchers, provide facilities for foreign researchers, and broaden academic cooperation agreements and mutual accreditation of credits and degrees.

Comments and discussions

Gerhard Fasol: Summary

Copyright (c) 2006-2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Educational reforms at Tokyo Institute of Technology

Yoshinao Mishima

keynote talk given at the 6th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, 20 February 2014

by Yoshinao Mishima, President of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Materials scientist specialized on nano-materials and high-performance materials

summary written by Gerhard Fasol

Tokyo Institute of Technology – short history

• 1881: founded as The Tokyo Technical School
• 1929: elevated to a degree-conferring university as Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
• 2004: reorganized as an independent administrative institution “National University Corporation Tokyo Institute of Technology”

Tokyo Institute of Technology – Statistics as of May 1, 2013

• Undergraduate students: 4,790 (of which 180 are foreign students)
• Graduate students: 3,611 Masters students + 1,512 Doctorate students = 5,123 (of which 943 (18.4%) are foreign students)
  
• Research students: 90
  
• Academic staff: 1,148
  
• Administrative staff: 472

Tokyo Institute of Technology – The mission is to develop a new and vibrant society

• produce graduates with a broad understanding of science and technology with both the ability and the determination to take on leading roles in society
  
• create and support innovative science and technology that will lead to sustainable social development

Tokyo Institute of Technology – Detailed mission statements cover three areas

• education: produce masters graduates who will thrive globally, and doctorate graduates who will come world’s top researchers are leaders
  
• contributions to society and international activities
  
• research: produce globally recognized results. Reform the research and support systems, in particular multi-step support for young researchers.

Tokyo Institute of Technology aims to become a world class university with greater diversity in faculty and students by 2030

Major educational reform plan (2013-…)

• Reborn masters and doctoral courses
  
• Reorganize departments, curriculum, courses
  
• Change from year-based study to credit based study
  
• Increase teaching in English, and numbers of foreign students
  
• Align with world top class universities for student transfers and credit transfers
  
• Enhance professional practice education for industry

A key challenge is that students primarily focus on earning credits to graduate, and lack a sense of mission to develop professional skills or to cooperate in our diverse global society. We need to change this type of behavior to create scientific leaders for the global arena.

We want to create a more flexible curriculum, that can be completed in a shorter time, so that students have more time for personal professional development and international exchange activities and communication skills.

Tokyo Institute of Technology: The Board of Directors decided on three pillars for education reform on September 6, 2013

1. Build education system to become one of the world’s top universities
   
2. Innovate learning
   
3. Promote ambitious internationalization

We will move to a new and more flexible curriculum system, where undergraduate schools and graduate schools are blended.

Tokyo Institute of Technology: new initiatives

We are introducing a number of initiatives including active learning, a faculty mentor system where every faculty member mentors 5-10 students, increased numbers of lectures in English, invited top global researchers, provide facilities for foreign researchers, and broaden academic cooperation agreements and mutual accreditation of credits and degrees.

Energy. Entropy. Leadership.

Gerhard Fasol, Chair

Monday, 20th February 2012 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

Ludwig Boltzmann Forum Tokyo 2012 – Program

• 14:00 Welcome by Thomas Loidl, Chargé d’affaires ad interim of the Austrian Embassy
• 14:10 Gerhard Fasol: today’s agenda”
• 14:20 – 14:40 Tatsuo Masuda
  Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, served as Director of Oil Markets and Emergency Preparedness of IEA
  “New energy architecture for Japan”
• 14:40 – 15:20 Kiyoshi Kurokawa (schedule permitting)
  Chairman of Japan’s Parliamentary Commission on the Fukushima Disaster, served as Special Cabinet Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation
  “Fukushima crisis fueling the third opening of Japan”
• 15:50 – 16:10 Hideaki Watanabe
  Corporate Vice-President, Nissan Motor Company, in charge of Electric Vehicles and Zero Emission Business
  “The new energy management supported by Electric Vehicles”
• 16:10 – 16:30 Robert Geller
  Professor of Geophysics University of Tokyo, seismologist. First ever tenured non-Japanese faculty member at the University of Tokyo
  “Understanding earthquakes: let’s put the physics back into geophysics!”
• 16:50 – 17:30 Gerhard Fasol
  Physicist. CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK, served as Assoc Professor at Tokyo University and Lecturer at Cambridge University and Manager of Hitachi Cambridge R&D lab
  “Ludwig Boltzmann and the laws governing energy”
• 17:30 – 17:50 Jonathan M Dorfan
  Particle physicist
  President, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, OIST. Served as Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  “New Solutions for Energy – OIST’s R&am;D Program”
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 15 February 2011
Further information:
Gerhard Fasol,
Peter Storer, Minister for Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Austria

Summary

Tatsuo Masuda: “New energy architecture for Japan”

Tatsuo Masuda described how Japan’s energy strategy and policy was until recently determined more or less behind closed doors by a group of about 100 insiders, of which Tatsuo Masuda has been one. This situation could continue as long as nothing went wrong.

Atomic energy was introduced to Japan via the USA, and instead of growing nuclear technology over an extended period of time within Japan, policians decided on a very short time schedule, which made it impossible to develop nuclear technology within Japan, and left purchase of ready-made nuclear power-plants and adoption of nuclear power technology from the USA as the only option.

Tatsuo Masuda predicts the “democratization” of electrical power generation in Japan. While at present almost all electrical power in Japan is produced by regional monopoly companies, in the future a development is likely, where many organizations, corporations, and private citizens will take part, or even may take over the main task or producing electrical energy in Japan.

Hideaki Watanabe: “The new energy management supported by Electric Vehicles”

Hideki Watanabe explained Nissan’s Leaf electrical vehicle program, and the associated energy technologies and businesses. During the coffee break, participants studied a Lead car, and an animated discussion took place about advantages and disadvantages of electrical cars, and in particular the Lead with respect to cold weather performance and other extreme conditions

Mr Watanabe explained that the Leaf electric car is the center of an energy management system, where the battery of Leaf electric car is an integral part of the energy management of the owner’s household.

Robert Geller: “Understanding earthquakes: let’s put the physics back into geophysics!”

Robert Geller calls for an return to the principles of physics in understanding earth quakes and in preparing for future disasters, instead of following positions based on political or funding priorities.

Robert Geller for a long time has been arguing for the view, that the timing, location and strength of earthquakes cannot be predicted due to fundamental principles of physics, and the nature of the earth. Robert demonstrated his arguments by bending a pencil in front of us (see photos below). While the stress distribution and other details can be calculated with precision, it is not possible to predict the time and the way the pencil breaks with accuracy. Robert argues that in a similar way, earth quakes can also not be predicted, because earth quakes are essentially in the mathematical sense chaotic phenomena.

Robert explained how a group of earth scientists years ago promised that they could predict earth quakes with the purpose of obtaining politically motivated funding for their research. They were successful in obtaining continuous research funding with the explicit purpose of developing methods to predict earthquakes. Once this funding started flowing for many years now, it is very difficult for scientists obtaining this funding to put the possibility of earthquake prediction in question.

Robert also discussed official earth quake risk maps, and explained that many of the strongest earth quakes occur in areas which are officially designated as low risk areas.

Robert called for a reassessment of earth quake policies and preparations for future disasters, using the most up-to-date results of earth-science, and to review outdated positions, and abandon those positions, which have been shown to be invalid using established methods of physics.

Gerhard Fasol: “Ludwig Boltzmann and the laws governing energy”

Gerhard Fasol reviewed Ludwig Boltzmann’s life and work, and particular his life-long work on the fundamental laws of physics governing energy.

Jonathan M Dorfan: “New Solutions for Energy – OIST’s R&D Program”

Jonathan Dorfan introduced OIST, The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, which has just recently been accredited as a Graduate University by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and introduced several research programs in the field of energy generation.

Jonathan explained the history of OIST, and OIST’s pioneering position as an English speaking international Graduate University in Japan. In particular, OIST has no Departments which would create barriers between research groups, instead the emphasis is on cross-disciplinary cooperation supported by the latest instrumentats and research tools. According to Jonathan, OIST succeeds in attracting most outstanding staff and students – surprisingly current market conditions seem to make it easier to attract outstanding research staff than students – the market for attracting outstanding students seems to be more competitive than for research staff. OIST offers scholarships for students, many or all of which are graduates from top ranking undergraduate schools.

Ludwig Boltzmann Forum Tokyo 2012 – Photos

Contact

Topic “Leadership and Diversity”

Gerhard Fasol, Chair

Thursday, 18th February 2010 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

• 14:00 Welcome by HE the Ambassador of Austria to Japan
• 14:10 – 14:40 Gerhard Fasol,
  “Ludwig Boltzmann as a local and global leader”
• 15:00 – 15:20 Atsuko Heshiki, MD and PhD
  President of Medical Woman’s International Association (MWIA) and Professor Emeritus at Saitama Medical School
  “Leadership in Professionalism”
• 15:20 – 15:40 Robert J Geller
  Professor of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
  “Faculty appointments and promotions in the age of bibliometrics”
• 15:40 – 16:00 Podium discussion
  “Leadership and diversity”
• 16:15-17:15 Kiyoshi Kurokawa,
  Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Science, Tokyo, Science and Technology, Former President of the Science Council of Japan, and
  Special Advisor to the Cabinet
  “Leadership and Diversity”
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 16 February 2010

Further information:
Gerhard Fasol,
Georg Poestinger, Counsellor, Austrian Embassy, Tel 03-3451-8281

Summary

As every year this year’s high-light was Professor Kurokawa’s presentation – Professor Kurokawa gave a passionate plea for change on all fronts – most surprising was his suggestion to select a Muslim Malaisian woman as the next President of Tokyo University, in order to achieve urgently needed changes in Japan’s society and Japan’s Universities.

Professor Heshiki explained about ethics and professionalism focusing on medical sciences and the work of medical professionals.

Professor Robert Geller explained how today’s bibliometrics revolution allows much better than in the past to measure the impact of scientific work. Robert suggested how to use bibliometric data to make the selection, appointments and promotions of researchers and academics more efficient.

Gerhard Fasol focused on Ludwig Boltzmann’s leadership qualities and his global impact. Ludwig Boltzmann travelled three times to the United States of America, and he travelled, and had impact all over Europe. He also worked in several different Universities in Austria and Germany.

Photos

Contact

Energy. Entropy. Leadership.

Gerhard Fasol, Chair

Friday, 20th February 2009 (Boltzmann’s birthday, 165 years ago) at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo

• 14:00 Welcome by HE the Ambassador of Austria to Japan
• 14:05-14:35 Hisashi Kobayashi,
  Sherman Fairchild University Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, Executive Advisor, National Institute for Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan.
  “Ludwig Boltzmann: His Impacts on Information and Communications Technologies”
• 14:35-14:45 Coffee Break
• 14:45-15:15 Gerhard Fasol, CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK “Ludwig Boltzmann’s scientific achievements”
• 15:15-15:45 Kazu Ishikawa (EXA Japan) Demonstrations:
  “Boltzmann’s equation for simulation and visualizing flow for the construction of cars, airplanes…”
• 15:45-16:00 Coffee Break
• 16:00-16:30 Kiyoshi Kurokawa,
  Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Science, Tokyo, Science and Technology, Former President of the Science Council of Japan, and
  Special Advisor to the Cabinet
  “Science and Technology Leadership and Society”
• 16:30-17:00 Gerhard Fasol, “Ludwig Boltzmann’s three trips to America and his human achievements ”
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 14 February 2009

Further information:
Gerhard Fasol,
Georg Poestinger, Counsellor, Austrian Embassy, Tel 03-3451-8281

Summary

Ludwig Boltzmann was one of the most important physicists and philosophers: it is almost impossible for any engineer, chemist or physicist to do a day’s work without using Boltzmann’s tools and results every day. Ludwig Boltzmann is this author’s and Eurotechnology Japan KK’s founder’s great grandfather – and his excellence is our company’s guiding light.

Ludwig Boltzmann was born 165 years ago on February 20, 1844, and last Friday, February 20, 2009 we celebrated by inviting several of Japan’s science and technology leaders to the Ludwig Boltzmann Symposium in Tokyo with kind cooperation and hospitality by the Ambassador of Austria and the Austrian Embassy.

First speaker was Professor Hisashi Kobayashi, Founder of the IBM Tokyo Laboratory, former Dean of Engineering of Princeton University. He showed how Entropy and noise in communications is linked to Boltzmann’s generalized Entropy and the H-Theorem. Coming from Princeton, Hisashi also showed us elegantly how strongly Einstein’s work is linked to Boltzmann’s.

Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa, former Dean of Medicine of Tokai University, former President of Japan’s Science Council and Advisor to two Japanese Prime Ministers and now Professor at Japan’s new Political Science University, gave an intense and passionate speech about which changes are necessary to live in our future which will be hot (as in global warming), flat (as in global communications and internet) and crowded (due do population growth). (Website of the book “Hot, flat and croweded” by Thomas L Friedman) Kiyoshi also made a passionate appeal to Japanese organisations (including the S&T leaders participating at our Symposium) to change, open up and compete globally.

Kazu Ishikawa of Exa Japan gave a fantastic demonstration how Boltzmann’s equations are used to simulate airflow for the construction of cars, airplanes, jet engines … Boltzmann’s equations replace the macroscopic Navier-Stokes equations as numerical wind tunnels. Boltzmann’s equations are particularly needed for the simulation of transients.

Finally, Gerhard Fasol, Ludwig Boltzmann’s Great-Grandson, gave two talks: one talk about Ludwig Boltzmann’s scientific achievements, his search for understanding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics with mechanics, the effects of collisions and the generalization to non-equilibrium – leading the H-Theorem, and the generalization of Entropy and Boltzmann’s philosophical work. The second talk introduced the human side of Ludwig Boltzmann: his life and his passions.

Photos