Eight U.S. Students and Nine UTokyo Students Receive FUTI Leadership Awards

The scholarship selection committee chaired by D. Masaaki Yamada, a Director of FUTI, has selected 9 UTokyo students and 8 students of U.S. universities as recipients of the 2012 FUTI International Leadership Award (FUTI-ILA). This award, introduced in 2010, is designed to nurture future global leaders of the U.S. and Japan, and one of the criteria for the award is a demonstration of leadership qualities. We hope that these outstanding students will acquire an international sense of thinking and strive for mutual understanding by attending summer schools or by conducting research as summer interns in the US or at UTokyo.
Last year, FUTI’s awards were given to six UTokyo students: four students who attended the Global Summer Program (GSP) at University of California Berkeley (UCB), and two students who attended Yale’s English Language Institute (ELI) . For the summer of 2012, the total number of UTokyo students awarded summer scholarships jumped to nine. This includes three students who have found summer schools by themselves, instead of GSP or ELI/YSS, which are coordinated by the oversea study program office of UTokyo. Six out of the nine awardees are female students, including one student from China.
The number of U.S. university students who will attend the GSP or conduct research as summer interns at laboratories in UTokyo will be eight. This includes three outstanding students selected from 37 candidates who applied to the University of Tokyo Research Internship Program (UTRIP) organized by the School of Sciences of UTokyo. Five out of the eight U.S. awardees are female students.
U.S. Students who received FUTI-ILA (8 students) are shown below with their institutions, major, year, the hosts at UTokyo or GSP courses to be taken.
UTRIP (University of Tokyo Research Internship Program) Awardees and their host labs

  • Mr. Emre Discekici (University of Illinois, Chemistry and East Asian Languages & Cultures, senior): Prof. Kazuo Tachibana, Department of Chemistry, UTokyo.
  • Ms. Gulnara Fayzulina (University of South Alabama, Physics and Mathematics, junior): Prof. Shinya Kuroda, Department of Biophysics & Biochemistry, UTokyo
  • Ms. Olivia Waring (Princeton University, Chemistry, senior): Prof. Takeaki Ozawa, Department of Chemistry, UTokyo.

MISTI (MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives) Awardees and their host labs

  • Ms. Jocelyn Fuentes (MIT, Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Science, junior): Prof. Hiroyuki Kagi, Geochemical Research Center, UTokyo
  • Mr. Jacob Albritton (MIT, Biology, senior): Prof. Ichizo Kobayashi, Medical Genome Sciences Lab, UTokyo
  • Mr. Justin Holmgren (MIT, Computer Science & Math, junior) Prof. Ichiro Hasuo, Computer Science Department, UTokyo

Participants in GSP at UTokyo

  • Ms. Wenyu Zhang (UCB, Applied Math & Statistics, sophomore): “Nano Science”
  • Ms. Tiffany Lee (UCB, Law School, Master 2nd year): “Japan in Today’s World”

UTokyo Students who receive FUTI-ILA (9 students) are listed below with their department, year, the US institutions where they study in the summer, and the courses.
Participants in GSP at UCB or Yale

  • Ms. Motoka Fukui (Engineering School, System Innovation Department, senior): GSP at UCB: “Islam 2.0: Medium & Re-shaping of Muslim Identity in the 21st Century”
  • Ms. Rin Ichino (Law School, Category 3: Politics, junior): GSP at UCB: “Summer Peace Institute”
  • Ms. Sari Yamashita (Agriculture Department, Agriculture and Resources Economics, senior): GSP at Yale: “Topics in International Economics”
  • Ms. Ayako Sakamoto (Agriculture Department, Environmental Biology, senior): GSP at Yale: “Sustainability and Institutions”

Participants in ELI or YSS at Yale

  • Mr. Masato Tsuji (Biology, junior): YSS “How the Brain Works,” and “Comprehensive General Chemistry”
  • Ms. Yuri Asanuma (Law Department, Category 3: politics, junior): ELI “6-Week Intensive Language Course”
  • Mr. Akitaka Yamada (Language and Information Sciences, senior): ELI “English for Postgraduate Study”

Participants in Other Summer Schools

  • Ms. Beibei Zhang (Graduate School of Frontier Science, Sustainability Science, Master 1st year): Summer Institute at UCB “Environmental Design”
  • Mr. Kento Kikuchi (Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, senior): Summer session at UCB “3-week English Language Studies”

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