Minister Seiji Maehara visits OIST

Mr. Seiji Maehara, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, visted OIST on July 31, 2010.

During his one-hour visit, Minister Maehara was briefed by Executive Director Dr. Robert Baughman on facilities and was taken on a tour of the OIST campus. He also met with Dr. Kenji Doya, Principal Investigator of the Neural Computational Unit, and Dr. Ulf Skoglund, Principal Investigator of the Structural Cellular Biology Unit. Both PIs made a presentation on their research.

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Dr. Skoglund explains about his research to Minister Maehara

Dr. Doya demonstrates robots developed by his unit

In the latter half of his visit, Miniter Maehara held an exchange meeting with young researchers and students of OIST. After hearing from each participant his/her background and research, Minister Maehara exchanged opinions with them on how to help foster human capital and promote science and technology. He then proposed an international exchange forum at OIST for young researchers and students from the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.