Hokkaido University

Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery

The application call for the 2025 MANABIYA Academic program is now open! Please refer here for the 2025 guidelines and application forms. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 15:00 JST. 

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.

Can Liu (Postdoctoral Researcher, Hokkaido University, Japan)
In this MANABIYA project, I used VASP to calculate intermolecular interaction energies and diffusion paths to explain the experimental results of STM. I have had a successful collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Gao Min before. She recommended me to take advantage of this MANABIYA project when we discussed this new research. So I applied and got the opportunity. Thanks to ICReDD’s high-performance servers, perfect computational support, and wonderful guidance and assistance of collaborators, we successfully completed the project. The results will be submitted for publication soon. I would like to express my special thanks to Assoc. Prof. Gao, Dr. Shen, Assoc. Prof. Harabuchi, and Prof. Mita, for their support and help.

Matthew Lowe (PhD Student, Newcastle University, UK)
I first heard about the MANABIYA program after Professor Ito visited my university to give a lecture. I applied to the program in order to collaborate with the Ito group in the area of mechanochemistry and was accepted to work in Professor Ito’s group for two months.
During my time in Hokkaido University, I learned an enormous amount under the supervision of Professor Ito and Assoc. Professor Kubota about mechanochemistry. I was able to collect plenty of high-quality data for our project and we aim to publish these results in a high-impact journal. My time in the Ito group also provided me with the opportunity to present my previous work at the prestigious ICReDD international symposium, which was incredibly valuable to my professional development. >>Read more.

Eiji Yamaguchi
(Associate Professor, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Japan)
At the end of July 2024, I left Gifu and landed at the cool Chitose Airport. Although I had visited Hokkaido before, this time I was particularly surprised by the temperature difference. I remember my mood naturally lifting with the expectation of spending a summer in such a comfortable climate.
The purpose of this stay in Hokkaido was to participate in a program called MANABIYA. This program attracts students and faculty not only from Japan but from around the world. I learned about it when Professor Mita enthusiastically promoted it at that year’s conference. At the time, I felt my research needed a computational chemistry solution, which led to my decision to participate. >>Read more.

Jack Hemingway
(Postdoctoral Research Associate, Newcastle University, UK)
I applied to the MANABIYA program after reading several papers discussing the use of the AFIR method for reaction pathway discovery and thinking it would be incredibly useful to my research, particularly to explain an experimental result for which the mechanism was completely unclear. I was accepted into the group of Professor Maeda and supervised by Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Hayashi to learn the AFIR method and apply it to the reactions I was working on. Professor Mita welcomed me to the University and members of his group as well as the Maeda group were always available to ask for help if it was required and made me feel very welcome during my time in Sapporo. >>Read more.

Hiroki Shigehisa (Lecturer, Musashino University, Japan)
I learned about the start of applications for MANABIYA from Prof. Mita, a close friend from my student days, I had the opportunity to participate in the MANABIYA program in late February 2024. The timing coincided with a period of heavy snowfall, requiring snow boots to navigate the challenging conditions. Due to personal and professional commitments, I undertook the demanding schedule of traveling between Tokyo and Sapporo twice within two weeks. Despite these challenges, my anticipation for the valuable learning experiences ahead kept me motivated. >>Read more.

David Liptrot (Senior Lecturer and Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Bath, UK)
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. >>Read more.

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.