Hokkaido University

Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery

In both the MANABIYA Academic and Industry frameworks, participants experience ICReDD’s research environment that fuses the fields of computational science, information science, and experimental science and learn ICReDD’s unique methods while focusing on a research specialty of one of ICReDD’S PIs.  

Please refer here for a full list of ICReDD PIs and topics.

David Liptrot (Senior Lecturer and Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Bath, United Kingdom)
I joined the MANABIYA program after seeing excellent research from ICReDD presented at a conference. I joined the groups of Professor Maeda and Professor Mita hoping to learn the AFIR method for reaction discovery. I was immediately impressed with the strength of the AFIR method, and excited to apply it to the research going on in my research group. I was excellently supported during my time at ICReDD by many researchers, and as a result got a thorough grasp of AFIR. The results I garnered in only 5 weeks at ICReDD have already directly contributed to a successful grant application, and a publication based on synthetic work driven by these results is nearing publication.

Please click here for to read Prof. Liptrot’s full comments.

Kiho Matsubara (PhD Student, Gunma University, Japan)

I spent an amazing time at WPI-ICReDD and enjoyed learning how to use the state-of-the-art GRRM program and discussing how I could enrich my ongoing research projects by using GRRM during my stay under the MANABIYA ACADEMIC program, both in 2022 and 2023. The time spent researching in this rare environment stimulated my own research attitude and was so meaningful that I decided to participate again in 2023. In 2023, I was also able to greatly expand my network of contacts by attending symposia and lectures organized by ICReDD. I think one of the main attractions of the MANABIYA program is the opportunity to actively participate in the activities of a research institution where cutting-edge research is being conducted. Regarding my computational chemistry work, I cannot thank all of the folks at ICReDD enough, especially Prof. Maeda, Specially Appointed Associate Prof. Harabuchi, and all the students in the Maeda lab for their generous support during my stay in Sapporo. Additionally, I very much owe thanks to Prof. Mita, Specially Appointed Assistant Prof. Hayashi, and the Mita group members for their kind supervision over the experimental chemistry work that I did in 2023.

Namhee KIM (PhD Student, Yonsei University, South Korea)
My experience in ICReDD was excellent for pursuing the research I wanted to conduct. The advantage of the MANABIYA program for me was collaborating with experts in the field in an environment equipped with better research and analytical instruments, such as single crystal X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. The free sharing of reagents and equipment between labs within ICReDD was also highly beneficial, and I learned various new techniques such as the crystallization of molecular rotors. Moreover, my colleagues were supportive, and I enjoyed social events such as the Christmas party. Throughout the MANABIYA program, I received plenty of administrative assistance, allowing me to enjoy my life without concerns. Overall, I found ICReDD to be a friendly place where people work together and share ideas to conduct high-level research.

Akira Katsuyama (Assistant Professor, Hokkaido University, Japan)
In the MANABIYA program, I learned about reaction path exploration of excited states using the AFIR method. During this experience, as I came to understand the challenges of searching for excited state structures, I realized AFIR is an incredibly powerful computational method for this purpose. The theoretical aspects presented in our published paper could only have been discussed with the help of this method. I am currently using what I learned to continue research that will discover new molecules. I received a lot of assistance from ICReDD staff, especially Professor Maeda and Professor Harabuchi, who enabled a specialist in organic synthesis like me to smoothly conduct computational chemistry research, so I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to them.