Kyudai News No27 page 11/28

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Kyudai News No27

engaging in international collaboration, and creating thescience of the future.Professor Sasaki also talks about the importanceof human resource development.Technology development in the field of energy takes 20 or30 years. Even Toyota’s FCV took 23 years to come tomarket. To put it another way, people have to be cultivatedin parallel with the technology development process,handing on the baton of the technology to successivegenerations of engineers before it comes to fruition as acommercial product. That is precisely why human resourcedevelopment is vital in the energy field, and it is universitiesthat can do this. In July, we established the HydrogenSociety Showroom at the International Research Center forHydrogen Energy, to offer user-friendly explanations ofhydrogen energy and a hydrogen society.In addition, at Ito Campus, we are seeing progressin the development of smart energy functions.An Ene-Farm has been installed in the canteen at ItoCampus, and the world’s newest large-scale fuel cells arealso running there on a trial basis. In addition, we areutilizing electricity generated from sunlight and wind power,investigating how much electricity can be generated fromthem, as well as creating a system that shows at a glance theamount by which carbon dioxide emissions are beingreduced across the whole of the campus. We have alsoadded the production model of the MIRAI to our fleet ofofficial vehicles and have established the Hydrogen Stationat the campus to produce hydrogen using renewable energy.Thus, we are not only using Ito Campus as a venue forresearch, but also as a testing ground for a hydrogen society.Hydrogen energy research is not merely a minorityfield of interest for a handful of our schools.Professor Sasaki says that common groundamong all of Kyushu UniversityOs schools willgrow as we strive to bring the hydrogen society tofruition.Energy and the economy are inextricably intertwined, so Ibelieve that we need to create new rules and legislation inorder to build new energy societies. It is likely that thecultures and resources of each individual country and regionwill also come into play. For Kyushu University to continueto lead the way to the hydrogen society of the future, it willbe crucial for us to work out how we can fully leverage ourstrengths as a university. Going forward, I would like tocollaborate with academics in the social sciences andhumanities in order to create a range of examples of success.If this special feature has piqued your interest in the issue ofglobal warming and the hydrogen society, why not thinkabout what you can do in your own specialist field? There isbound to be something that you can do to help our planetand future generations.World-LeadingEHydrogenEEnergyEResearchProfessorKazunari SasakiAfter graduating from the School of Engineering at TokyoInstitute of Technology in 1987, obtained a doctorate inengineering from Swiss Federal Institute of Technologyin Zurich. Became a Visiting Scholar at the Max PlanckInstitute in 1995. After 10 years in Europe, became anAssociate Professor at Interdisciplinary Graduate Schoolof Engineering Sciences,Kyushu University in1999 and then Professorin the Faculty ofEngineering, beforebeing appointedDistinguished Professorin 2011. Currently alsoserving as Director ofthe Next-GenerationFuel Cell ResearchCenter.Hydrogen Society Showroom showing the development of hydrogen energytechnology from the past to the future10