Mr. Kengo Watanabe, a third-year PhD program student in the pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Tokyo was selected as a recipient of the 2012 FUTI International Leadership Award (FUTI-ILA). He was enrolled in the summer school at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York State, a premier science research institution in the U.S. With Mr. Watanabe, the total number of recipients of the FUTI awards became eighteen, ten of which were awarded to UTokyo students and eight to those enrolled in U.S. universities. (See FUTI Newsletter No.5)
Mr. Kengo Watanabe comments, “I became interested in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, because it was medicine that healed my father of malignant lymphoma when I was a junior high school student. I already received solid education in molecular biology, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and pharmacology at UTokyo, but through my research project, I was also feeling the limitation to elucidate complicated biological systems. Learning quantitative approaches at CSHL computational cell biology course, I realized that mathematics and computer science would overcome the restrictions in the near future.”
FUTI’s International Leadership 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 U.S. or at UTokyo.
Articles in this newsletter:
- Japanese Alumni Boost FUTI’s Third Annual Campaign
- An Interview with Dr. Chihiro Kanagawa, Chairman of Shintech, Inc.
- Messages of FUTI donors (in Japanese only)
- The roster of FUTI scholarship recipients and their reports are now on FUTI’s website
- Your expression of gratitude to your alma mater in accordance with your financial means by Shigenori Matsushita (in Japanese only)
- FUTI Scholarship Students Enjoying Classes at Yale
- Reception for the 2012 UTRIP participants held
- Reception for the 2011 GSP participants at UTokyo held
- Prof. Koichi Hamada speaks on monetary policy and Japan’s economic recovery
- Mr. Kengo Watanabe, a Pharmacology graduate student, receives an FUTI award
- Mathematician Shoshichi Kobayashi (1932-2012), oldest member of the San Francisco Akamonkai dies at 80
