1. Overview
Established in 1998, the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences consists of three divisions: Transdisciplinary Sciences, Biosciences and Environmental Studies. The unique view shared by all of these divisions is to create opportunities for research and education in new frontiers derived from traditional individual academic disciplines. We founded our education and research systems on the basic principle of interdisciplinary activity, and apply this principle in our mission to boldly challenge these new frontiers.
Our Graduate School focuses our education and research on seven fields: materials, energy, information, complex systems, life sciences, the environment and bioinformatics. Each of these areas has problems that transcend its respective field and will become more pressing and even more in need of resolution in the 21st century. Merely gathering together segmented, individualized technical knowledge will not be sufficient to solve these multifaceted and complex problems. We need a radical modification of the current academic system, all the way back to the basic framework that defines our knowledge. In other words, we need to buck the trend to segment academia and take on the enormous responsibility of diversifying knowledge in a new way. The Graduate School of Frontier Sciences aims to further create a new knowledge system under an interdisciplinary banner.
In order to achieve our interdisciplinary goals, we have created a research and education system spearheaded by professors with as broad a background as possible, including nanoscience, materials, energy, information, complex systems, life science, bioinformatics, the environment and international cooperation. We welcome students who have graduated with a basic education in any academic field and train them to hold many different viewpoints. Our Graduate School has established a variety of degree programs with professors from both Japanese and international research and educational institutions who can laterally cover issues in their field. This allows us to tackle the problems humanity is trying to solve. We also offer interdisciplinary educational programs, such as the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science, the Nuclear Fusion Research Education Program, the Education Program for High Dimensional Data Driven Science, and the Medical Genome Sciences Program.
The Graduate School of Frontier Sciences is located on the Kashiwa Campus. The Kashiwa Campus aspires to be an international campus with close ties to the local community.
2. Departments
Department of Advanced Energy
Department of Complexity Science and Engineering
Department of Integrated Biosciences
Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences
Department of Natural Environmental Studies
Department of Ocean Technology, Policy, and Environment
Department of Environment Systems
Department of Human and Engineered Environmental Studies
Department of Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies
Department of International Studies
Graduate Program in Sustainability Science
Department of Advanced Materials Science
The Department of Advanced Materials Science contains a variety of research laboratories, focusing on areas from organic to inorganic materials, and from surface/interface to bulk materials. Putting emphasis on a unique collaboration among different disciplinary groups between physics, chemistry and materials science, the department aims to explore novel material/electron phases and phase transitions and to identify the mechanism behind the novel phenomena. The department also pursues new functional devices based on novel mechanisms and disciplines, to contribute to the construction of a sustainable society and to solve energy and environmental issues. From an educational point of view, we nurture students who can then join the above research efforts and experience research across different disciplines.
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Department of Advanced Energy
The Department of Advanced Energy conducts leading-edge research extending the current framework of energy engineering and developing innovative technologies. We conduct comprehensive education and research with "Energy", and work in such fields as aerospace engineering, deep space exploration, advanced electromagnetic energy use, electric vehicle and zero emission mobility, nuclear fusion energy, plasma science and engineering. Students are trained to develop skills to face the challenges of fundamental energy problems. Our advanced research projects create an international and interdisciplinary research environment.
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Department of Complexity Science and Engineering
The Department of Complexity Science and Engineering aims at investigating various problems related to complexity through an integrated approach, and training scientists and engineers who can create new paradigms of complexity science and technology. In order to deal with complexity from the nanoscale to the universe scale, we activate three research groups called "modules" for brain-bio, astrobiology, and the extreme matters. Further, through our "complexity platform" based on mathematical, informational, and visual theories and technologies shared by the three fields, we hope to create new complexity science and technologies and develop efficient new research and educational methods.
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Department of Integrated Biosciences
The basic philosophy of The Department of Integrated Biosciences is to conduct leading transdisciplinary research and education to uncover the basic principles and integrative biofunctions that support life phenomena. Our educational goal is to train students with the skills to meet the rapid developments in life sciences and solve any problems in this field that may one day arise, as well as open new and unexplored fields and draft the next generation of life science policy. To accomplish this, we provide a distinctive curriculum for not only students in life science-related fields, but also for students from various fields with a can-do attitude who will open the doors to the life science of tomorrow. Since October 2013, all lectures for foreigners are delivered in English. Students from overseas can earn MS or PhD degrees using only English.
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¡ô Required Japanese Level
Master's degree: no Japanese ability necessary
Doctoral degree: no Japanese ability necessary
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Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences
* In April 2015, the Departments of Medical Genome Sciences and Computational Biology were combined to form the Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences. This new department is divided into three Groups: the Group of Medical Science, the Group of Computational Biology and the Group of Innovation Policy Studies.
The rapid advances in technologies for DNA sequencing, omics analysis, and imaging in recent years have enabled comprehensive analysis of a wide variety of biological macromolecules for the first time, and paved the way for the analysis of complex biological phenomena as a whole. Moreover, massive data analysis of biological molecules, which was simultaneously realized, was found to be the focal point of life innovation. In the age of information-oriented life science, the innovation of information technology will be essential for understanding the numerous elements that are involved in biological phenomena and their interrelationships, as well as for examining their regulation. Medicine has always been at the forefront of applied life science because of its urgent need, and there is no exception in the age of information-oriented life science. The marked progress being made in the acquisition of personal genomes in humans has enabled the rapid estimation of mutations related to diseases, and its clinical applications are being investigated. In addition, due to the accumulation of a substantial amount of phenotypic information in the form of medical care information, humans are thought of as the most suitable subjects of research involving novel information technology. Accordingly, in the age of information-oriented life science, it is expected that the field of medical science will lead the development of other fields.
The objectives of this new major are to lead the way in information-oriented life science while significantly contributing to life innovation, and to cultivate personnel capable of translating the results in a clinical setting. To this end, we believe that it is necessary to develop personnel with novel specialties by actively employing on-the-job training in state-of-the-art informatics and medical science research settings and implementing a basic education environment for integrating information science and medical science.
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¡ô Required Japanese Level
Master's degree: The ability to communicate sufficiently in Japanese or English
Doctoral degree: The ability to communicate sufficiently in Japanese or English
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Department of Natural Environmental Studies
The challenges facing the world today require us to create a sustainable society predicated on the sustainable use of natural resources and coexistence with nature. Deeper knowledge of the characteristics of the natural environment, and the history of human activities' effects on nature, are an indispensable part of the design for the future. Through our terrestrial and marine environment courses, students will investigate nature and society from various angles, including investigation of the changes and states of nature, from the local community to the global scale, and with consideration of the history of human interaction with the environment. While concentrating on research activities in this area, students will also gain broader knowledge from a number of related fields of research into human activities and the environment. Through this broad training, we hope to make a strong contribution to the formation of a sustainable society. The goal of the Department of Natural Environmental Studies is to train people who can accomplish all these goals and more.
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Department of Ocean Technology, Policy, and Environment
The Department understands that the utilization and preservation of the Marine environment plays a pivotal role in finding solutions to global environmental concerns such as climate change and shortages of energy, food and other scarce resources. As such, the Department strives to establish academic and research programs that develop key technologies for ocean utilization and conservation, new ocean industries and marine environments, and appropriate ocean policies. In addition to acquainting students with ocean technology policy, marine resource development, marine energy utilization, marine environment conservation, and ocean fundamentals, students participate in laboratory exercises and ocean observations designed to develop high level skills. Graduates are expected to contribute to the creation of ocean policies, the promotion of ocean industries, and the conservation of marine environments.
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Department of Environment Systems
The production of artificial materials, the discharge of wastes, and the development of Earth's surface, underground and ocean have significantly affected the environment systems which are composed both by natural environments and human societies, and have degraded the wealth of ecosystems and the quality of human life. To tackle and overcome these problems, it is quite important to understand the material and energy cycles, and to clarify the interaction among sub-systems which constitute the whole environment system. In addition, it is highly expected to develop problem-solving methodologies and their application through the detailed study by natural scientific and engineering approach together with the integration of economics, policy science, and international cooperation. The viewpoints of risks and safety are also fundamental importance for our activities.
The Department of Environment Systems conduct research and education to design and realize the sustainable societies by analyzing the interaction and relationship between human societies and natural environment, developing the model to represent the environment systems based on the detailed analyses, clarifying the causes of the problems using the systems model, and investigating the possible solutions and the way to manage the system. We expect highly motivated students and researchers to join in our group to collaborate to achieve the objectives.
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Department of Human and Engineered Environmental Studies
New Horizon for a Bright Future
Department of Human and Engineered Environmental Studies, envisioning the future beyond the horizon
Using engineering and informatics as fundamental technologies, along with an understanding of human characteristics, this department conducts research that contributes to human activities by developing novel elemental technologies and system designs. Our research targets focus primarily on the engineered devices and man-made systems that make up our societal and living environment. Among the research themes considered are the development of assistive technologies that will enable people to live their lives in a secure manner, the realization of services that will ensure the safety of the social infrastructure that surrounds us, and the realization of a carbon neutral future for the global environment.
Our mission is to create frameworks that will lead to the realization of a safe and secure society under the motto of “understanding people, supporting people, and connecting people.”
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Department of Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies
The cities in which we live are environments made up of not only communities of people, but also "hardware" in the form of buildings and civil infrastructure. Moreover, urban areas cannot exist independently of the natural environment. Accordingly, environmental protection and environment formation need to be understood in terms of the interrelationships between such diverse elements. In order to accomplish this task, the Department of Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies applies, at the departmental level, the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences' guiding philosophy of maintaining a transdisciplinary approach to science.
Our department comprises three core programs—Society and Humanity, Spatial Planning and Design, Water and Material Cycle—as well as the cooperative course Spatial Information Science. We engage in education and research on analysis, evaluation, prediction, creation, and management of physical and socio-cultural environments at the architectural, urban, regional, and global levels. By introducing a multi-faceted approach that covers the natural and socio-cultural sciences, we provide students with the ability to accurately deal with a variety of challenges in environmental studies.
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Department of International Studies
The Department of International Studies came about as an education and research organization that would confer the first degree in International Studies at the University of Tokyo. One salient feature of the department is our interdisciplinary approach to poverty, development cooperation, institution building, policy coordination, environmental and resource management, and other issues related to international cooperation that are directly facing today's global community, as opposed to the traditional segregated, specialized disciplines. We provide the highest level of education and research to produce personnel capable of forming policy to prevent or resolve these issues. Roughly half of our classes are taught in English, and we welcome overseas exchange students. We have a special selection process for overseas applicants who attended junior and senior high school outside of Japan, and base our acceptance decision on application screening alone.
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Graduate Program in Sustainability Science
The Graduate Program in Sustainability Science is an international graduate program to train professionals and researchers who can help create a sustainable society. All lectures and practical courses are provided in English, and more than half of GPSS students come from overseas. As an inter-departmental program in the Division of Environmental Studies, we offer lectures that provide students with relevant knowledge and expertise in organized and systematic ways, exercises for encouraging students of different backgrounds to collaborate in groups to tackle actual problems and challenges in society, and seminars for exchanging views and approaches among students having diverse academic and research backgrounds.
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3. Websites
Department of Advanced Energy¡¡
Department of Complexity Science and Engineering¡¡
Department of Integrated Biosciences¡¡
Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences¡¡
Department of Natural Environmental Studies¡¡
Department of Ocean Technology, Policy, and Environment¡¡
Department of Environment Systems¡¡
Department of Human and Engineered Environmental Studies¡¡
Department of Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies¡¡
Department of International Studies¡¡
Graduate Program in Sustainability Science¡¡
