The fifth NTT Basic Research Laboratories (BRL) school was held from November 24-27, 2009 at the NTT Atsugi R&D Center. The aim of the NTT-BRL school is to foster young researchers in physics and applied physics field and to promote the international visibility of NTT BRL. This year the theme was "Current Research on Cutting-edge Materials", which is closely related to the intensive research based on the materials that NTT BRL is conducting. Prestigious professors and researchers were invited to the school as lecturers. There were thirty-five participants, who were mainly Ph. D students, from nine countries.
On the first day, after the director of NTT BRL had provided an overview
of NTT BRL, Prof. Klaus Ploog (Former Director of Paul-Drude-Institute,
Germany) presented lectures entitled "Advanced materials for information
storage". He also gave lectures every day during the school that covered
sustainable energy based on the materials science from the ecological point
of view. Prof. Takao Someya (The University of Tokyo, Japan) gave a talk
on "Organic materials for electronics, displays, LEDs" on the
afternoon of the first day. In this school, there were several lectures
by researchers working at NTT BRL. Dr. Toshiki Makimoto gave a lecture
on "State-of-the-art Devices using Group-III Nitride Semiconductors".
Dr. Hiroshi Yamaguchi talked about the "Micro/nanomechanical Devices
using Compound Semiconductor". Dr. Masaya Notomi gave a talk entitled
"Perspective on artificial dielectrics". A poster session was
held in the evening of the second day, where each student gave a presentation
about his/her research at the university. All the students, lecturers,
and NTT BRL researchers had a good time exchanging information on current
research topics in various fields. On the second and third days we provided
an overview of NTT BRL. A laboratory tour was conducted so that the students
could see the research facilities. Managers of NTT BRL gave talks on recent
activities at each laboratory. On the final day, all the participants attended
NTT BRL Science Plaza 2009, which is an exhibition of recent research achievements
and activities. They enjoyed detailed discussions with researchers about
on-going research topics.
At the farewell party, best poster prizes were awarded to the students
who gave noteworthy presentations. The students were able to network and
build friendships and exchange contact addresses. NTT BRL will continue
to provide these kinds of occasions to support young researchers and help
establish human networks in the fields of physics and applied physics.
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