Welcome messages FY2019

• Yoshihiko Hosoi

  

  It is our great privilege to be able to hold the 53rd International Chemistry Olympiad at Kindai University’s East Osaka Campus in 2021.

  With 6 campuses situated in western Japan, Kindai University boasts comprehensive Japan-leading educational facilities, offering options in all areas of study, from Medicine to the Arts through our 14 faculties and junior college. We implement “Learning for the real world” as our founding principle throughout all our faculties, with the aim of producing students that make a difference in society. Lately, through our establishment of the Faculty of International Studies and programs such as our development of students with Russia, we are moving forward by strengthening our international presence, pursuing agreements with many overseas institutions and increasing the number of foreign exchange students on our campuses.

  We continue to add to our track record of further promotion of our global education and research environment. In April 2017 we opened “ACADEMIC THEATER” at our East Osaka Campus, a facility which goes beyond science and arts, and seeks to facilitate resolutions to many different issues facing society.

  At the same East Osaka Campus, as the world sets its eyes on the manufacturing hub that is Osaka, in June 2019 the G20 summit was held, and the city is also an ideal locale for the upcoming 2025 World Expo, as a convenient gateway to Nara and Kyoto, which represent the origin of traditional Japanese culture.

  With the backdrop of the worldwide sports festival, the Olympics and Paralympics, being held in Tokyo in 2020, the next year in the hotspot that is Osaka, Kindai University will host the International Chemistry Olympiad, a festival celebrating the mental abilities of high school students from around the world.

  All of the staff and teachers at Kindai University are working together tirelessly to ensure the facilities and equipment available to these high school students is top notch, so they can freely show their true intellectual power. We are also setting up opportunities for the people to experience Japanese culture, doing our utmost to prepare an environment for international exchange. We are truly looking forward to welcoming everyone to our East Osaka Campus at Kindai University.

  

• Kohei Tamao

  

  The 53rd International Chemistry Olympiad will be held in Osaka, Japan, from Saturday, July 24 to Monday, August 2, 2021. On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I am looking forward to welcoming many talented high-school students who love chemistry to Japan on this occasion.

  The IChO2021 is the second event in Japan since the 42nd IChO2010 was held in Tokyo, and has already been determined to be held at Kindai University, one of the leading private universities in Japan, located in Osaka, the second biggest city next to Tokyo. First of all, I would like to appreciate the strong support that we receive from government, industry and academia, and also express my sincere thanks to those who have been devoting themselves to make this event successful.

  Chemistry is all around us as the central science! Humanity is now facing many global challenges, caused by the rapid development of science and technology, and world population growth. Chemistry may play a leading role in finding solutions for many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, SDGs, issued by the United Nation in 2016, across a wide range from energy/environmental/resources issues to addressing poverty and starvation. Chemistry has a mission to create new materials. It is the only scientific discipline that can understand and transform the structures and functions of materials at the atomic and molecular levels. I really hope that young talent with these qualities will grow. We would like to make an effort to contribute to the development of such young chemists in the IChO2021 Osaka.

  This year 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, IYPT2019, declared by the UN to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the discovery of the periodic system of the elements by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. Activities to spread the beauty of the periodic table and its significance to the next generations are taking place all over the world. I hope there will be more young talent interested in chemistry.

  Osaka, the venue for IChO2021, faces the Seto Inland Sea and is a lively, modern commercial city not only directly connected to nearby chemical manufacturing, but is also the birthplace of chemical research in Japan. In 1869, a kind of chemical research center Seimikyoku (named based on the pronunciation of the Dutch “Chemie”) was launched as an Osaka branch of the national Western (Dutch) Research Organization located in Tokyo.　Coincidentally, it was in the same year as Mendeleev’s discovery of the periodic system, and thus this year 2019 also celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the establishment of Seimikyoku. We can feel the era of modern science blossoming both inside and outside of the country. It should also be noted that the Seimikyoku gave rise to Kyoto University later.

  Neighboring Osaka, Nara and Kyoto are the birthplace of Japan’s politics and culture. In the late 6th century, the first capital was placed in the Nara area, and then moved to Kyoto in the 8th century. Since then, despite being taunted by history, Kyoto was the capital of Japan until the late 19th century when the capital was moved to Tokyo. Therefore, Kyoto is called an “Ancient capital for a thousand years”, and this area centered on Osaka is called “Kin-ki” meaning an area near the capital.

  I have a desire for all high-school students and mentors participating in IChO2021 to enjoy and become familiar with the long history of Japan and the culture represented by the ancient capital for a thousand years.　It is a great pleasure for us to provide a place and a chance for personal communication and cultural exchange among the world’s talented young people in the Kin-ki region, where the unique culture is growing by mixing old culture, modern material civilization and scientific industry.

  We will work closely on writing problems, venue construction, event management, excursions, etc. while referring to previous experience, and aim for IChO2021 where everybody can feel “Chemistry! It’s Cool!”.

  I look forward to welcoming you to Japan in 2021.

  President: IChO Japan Committee
  Chairman: Organizing Committee for the 53rd IChO2021, Osaka, Japan
  President: Toyota Chemical and Physical Research Institute (Toyota RIKEN)
  Honorary Science Advisor of RIKEN
  Professor Emeritus Kyoto University