Non-Equilibrium Materials Research Laboratory, IMR, Tohoku University
FY 2025
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～FY 2016
Photo GalleryIMR held its annual Beer Party! We are deeply grateful to the Graduate Studens, who organized everything smoothly, allowing faculty and staff to simply drop in and enjoy the event. Along with the usual karaoke and speed-drinking contests, a new Oogiri (Japanese comedy improvisation) contest was introduced this year. With few volunteers signing up, several professors -including Prof. Kato- were drafted to participate. Everyone had a great time with clever inside jokes about IMR life, though the professors confessed feeling even more nervous than giving an academic presentation! Prof. Kato won a watermelon in the contest, which we chilled and thoroughly enjoyed in the lab a few days later -though sadly, Prof. Kato missed out as he was away on an overseas business trip!
Ever since Prof. Karen joined Kato Lab, eating lunch together in the secretary's office had become our favorite daily routine, all thanks to her initiative to bring everyone together. June 30 marked our final daily lunch session with her, so we organized a special Takoyaki (octopus ball) party to make lasting memories and share a taste of Japanese culture! We invited Assistant Prof. Yusuke Ohashi -a Kato Lab alumnus with past experience working at a takoyaki shop- and fired up two hot plates. Under his expert guidance, we all enjoyed making and eating delicious, freshly made takoyaki. After lunch, Prof. Karen surprised us with thoughtful gifts for every single member of the lab, handing them out along with warm words and fond memories. Thank you so much, Prof. Karen, we will definitely miss you and hope to see you again soon! We plan to keep our group lunch tradition alive with occasional get-togethers.
We held a joint farewell party for Visiting Associate Prof. Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart (Stony Brook University), who completed her term with us, and a welcome party for Ms. Goeun Kim (M1 student from Seoul National University, Prof. Eun Soo Park's group), who is conducting joint research at Kato Lab for two months starting June 17. Our M1 students (Isono, Takada, and Takatani) stepped up as organizers, handling shopping and running a series of entertaining party games. The activities kept everyone laughing -from guessing "surprising traits of lab members" to a fast-paced live app trivia quiz about IMR and Kato Lab, and a image-guessing game where Prof. Karen’s photos slowly revealed themselves from behind a mosaic. After the main party, we moved back to the lab for an after-party filled with lively chats, including love stories with Ms. Kim! We even had fun experimenting with a real-time speech translation app for Korean. Watching the recorded video days later had us all cracking up at our silly conversations. It was an unforgettable event that brought everyone together!
Fired up by the Japan National Team’s exciting morning World Cup match against the Netherlands, Kato Lab eagerly joined the 4th Tri-Lab Futsal Tournament! With only a 7-player core roster--M1s (Isono, Takatani, Takada), M2s (Hayakawa, Shimizu, Suzuki), and Prof. Kato --Prof. Karen and our secretary, Ms. Ito, also geared up as backup in case we ran out of stamina. Game 1 vs Yoshimi Lab ① (1-3): M2 Suzuki struggled in goal early on, conceding 3 quick goals. Once he found his rhythm, M2 Hayakawa assisted M1 Takada for a great goal to get us on the board! Game 2 vs Yoshimi Lab ② (2-1): As exhaustion set in, Prof. Kato entered the pitch. Down 0-1, he scored a brilliant long shot! Thanks to the "2 points for players 40+" rule, we pulled off a 2-1 comeback win. Game 3 vs Nomura Lab ② (0-9): Nomura Lab's aces took full advantage of the "3 points for female goals" rule. Prof. Karen and Ms. Ito stepped in after negotiating a humorous "6 points for females over 40" rule, but making a shot proved too tough, resulting in a 0-9 defeat. Game 4 vs Nomura Lab ① (0-1): Learning from earlier games, we relied on Prof. Kato's playmaking, Hayakawa's endless stamina, and female scoring potential. We held a draw until near the end, but narrowly lost 0-1. We finished 4th out of 5 teams! Nomura Lab took 1st place overall, but Kato Lab definitely had the most fun and brought the best energy. Non-Equilibrium Go! Go! Go! Kato Lab Go! Go! Go!
Ahead of the 4th annual 3-Lab Futsal Tournament (Yoshimi Lab & Nomura Lab from the Department of Materials Science, and Kato Lab from IMR), our M1 students organized a pre-tournament practice session. Some lab members gathered in Katahira park in the evening and practiced using a brand-new soccer ball kindly bought by Prof. Karen. Although the ball accidentally went missing, we switched to other physical games, worked up a good sweat, and had a great time together. We look forward to playing our best, having fun, and staying injury-free in tomorrow's tournament!
As usual, the IMR Hanami was held at MIkamine Park. Since we was in charge of organizing the event last year, we didn’t have a single moment on the day of the party to relax, enjoy the cherry blossoms, or have a drink… so we really appreciated the ease and gratitude of being able to join as a participant this time. We arrived at the park by 10:00 a.m., where we secured a spot with a beautiful view of the cherry blossoms. Since Hanami didn’t start until 11:00 a.m., we spent the hour with playing “ito” a card game brought by M1/Takatani. It seemed like the younger folks had played “ito” before, but the older members hadn’t, so we started by going over the rules. Basically, it's a game where you compare your own values with those of others. The hour-long wait flew by, and it was quite lively and fun. Once Hanami began, we enjoyed our Bento boxes with drinks and chatting. The wind was a bit strong that day, a sudden gust would send a flurry of cherry blossom petals swirling through the air- it was beautiful, but our Bento boxes ended up covered in a huge amount of petals. The fun time flew by, and after cleaning up and leaving the park, we returned to Kato-lab as usual for the after-party. Many people from other lab visited us and we had a lively time together.
