The 20th RIES-Hokudai International Symposium was held in Hokkaido, Japan on December 2–3 with Fraser Stoddart presenting as the invited plenary speaker. He used the occasion to speak about recent research under the title of “Chemically and Electrically Driven Molecular Pumps and Motors.” The symposium was organized by the Research Institute for Electronic Science (RIES) and Hokkaido University with the aim of encouraging interaction between researchers in different fields of optical, material, and life science. Since its inception in 1999 the symposium has been symbolized by a single “Kanji” character, this year’s being “ki”, which generally denotes “rare”, “uncommon”, and “uniqueness”. This Kanji was chosen in order to emphasize the importance of uniqueness in scientific research across different fields.
Pictured below – Fraser with the speakers and participants of the 20th RIES-Hokudai International Symposium
