Japan 2019: Culture & Collaboration

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In September and October 2019 I visited Japan for the NanoDTC JapaNano symposium. The 1-week symposium was based in Tokyo and aimed to develop NanoDTC PhD students’ understanding of research and, more broadly, life in Japan through visits to Tokyo Tech, Toshiba, InspireLab, RIKEN and a number of start-up companies. However, already being half-way around the world, and in what you could say is the heart of TADF research, I decided to extend my stay by a couple of weeks in order to visit some more laboratories!

Kinkaku-ji temple, Kyoto Kinkaku-ji temple, Kyoto

Whilst still in Tokyo I went back to RIKEN where I was hosted by Prof. Tahara of the Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory – their advanced transient Raman spectroscopy setups were particularly impressive. After Tokyo I headed south to the ancient city of Kyoto to visit the Kaji Laboratory. On top of teaching me about their fantastic DNP-NMR setup (and how it can be used to better understand TADF emitters) the Kaji group took me sightseeing! We went on a sake brewery tour, walked through Fushimi Inari Shrine (pictured), wandered from Kiyomizudera temple through the Higashiyama district, and finished the day with a traditional Japanese meal. Fortunately we also managed to squeeze in a bit more science, with many interesting discussions on TADF structure-function relationships following my seminar.

Kaji Group, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto Kaji Group, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto

Finally, I travelled further down the island to Fukuoka, the home of Kyushu University and thus OPERA/the Adachi group. Over the course of 3 days at OPERA I toured the advanced synthesis and device-testing setups and had many insightful meetings with members of the TADF team. Learning about the design rules necessary for efficient TADF from the perspective of chemists was particularly interesting. Of course, we also enjoyed some delicious seafood.

Thank you to the Institute of Physics, Fitzwilliam College, and the NanoDTC for all the funding that made the trip possible!

OPERA, Kyushu University OPERA, Kyushu University