iCeMS hosts the 1st KAPS Symposium

On March 28, iCeMS hosted the 1st Kyoto Advanced Porous Science (KAPS) Symposium – A new discovery in confined space. The full day event was co-organized by Profs Shuhei Furukawa and Satoshi Horike and Drs Masakazu Higuchi, Hirotoshi Sakamoto and Ken-ichi Otake, members of the KAPS Project Unit. The on-site only event was the first KAPS was able to organize since 2019 and the enthusiasm was evident as over 60 participants filled the seminar room.

Furukawa opened the symposium by welcoming participants from South Korea, China, and throughout Japan and introducing KAPS. He defined porous materials as materials with small holes in the nm to mm range which can be used for capture and transport of molecules. Porous materials can be categorized by pore size and level of order/disorder of the structure. According to Furukawa, iCeMS is exploring possibilities of the full range of porous materials for uses in the environment, healthcare, and energy storage.

This first symposium brought together ten researchers focusing on porous materials with small pores and organized structures; Midori Akiyama, (Kyoto U), Watcharop Chaiikittisilp (NIMS), Hae Sung Cho (Chung-Ang U), Yuiko Handa (Saitama U), Ichiro Hisaki (Osaka U), Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto U), Kenji Okada (Osaka Metropolitan U), Hiroshi Sato (RIKEN), Koh Sugamata (Rikkyo U), and Yumi Yakiyama (Osaka U) presented their research. Two more scientists, Yifan Gu (Tongji U) and Daisuke Tanaka (Kwansei Gakuin U) kindly shared their new ideas as flash talks.

iCeMS Distinguished Prof Kitagawa, who presented his research and introduced iCeMS, stated, “I am very pleased to have you all here in person. We hope gradually to open these symposiums up more and more. I wish this symposium is very successful.” Judging by the energy of the excited exchanges during the Q&As after each presentation, it was.