Non-Equilibrium Materials Research Laboratory, IMR, Tohoku University
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Photo GallerySpecially Appointed Assistant Professor Song Ruirui (E-IMR: Joint Research Center for Advanced Energy Materials, IMR, Tohoku University) has reached the end of her term and returns to China. Song-san first joined our lab as a D1 student in October 2019. After completing her PhD, she became a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at E-IMR and continued her work within our lab, meaning we have spent a wonderful six and a half years together. Alongside her research, she also became a mother during her time here, and we watched her work tirelessly every day to balance her academic career with her family life. She told us "I am thrilled to see how I can apply the knowledge gained at the Kato Lab in my future endeavors". We are all looking forward to the day we can reunite through joint research. We wish you all the best, Song-sensei! Zaijian (Goodbye)!
Our final events of 2025 were the year-end cleaning and a party. We started the cleaning by tidying up our personal spaces before moving on to a full-scale overhaul of the entire facility. Every year, we wax the floors in the lab, the office, and the secretary’s room. Rather than just adding another layer, we use a stripping agent to remove the old wax from the previous year before applying a fresh coat. By tradition, the first-year Master’s students (M1) take charge of this, and they always struggle with the floor polosher since it’s their first time. Seeing them struggle, Associate Professor Wada stepped in to demonstrate; his handling of the polisher was incredibly stable. M1 cleaned the floor slowly and meticulously, and once the surface turned bright and clean, we applied a generous coat of wax. The cleaning wrapped up with the floors sparkling like new. In the evening, we headed to our year-end party. In the calm, quiet atmosphere of the private rooms, we enjoyed plenty of drinks and great conversation. For the second-party, we went to Karaoke at Prof.Kato's request. It was quite funny to watch the students pick songs that the staff in their 50s would know and queue them up. We ended the night singing our hearts out together until late.
We were invited by Seki Laboratory (IMR, Magnetic Materials) to hold a joint Imoni party, and we gladly accepted! The plan was for Seki Lab to take charge of the Sendai-style Imoni and Kato Lab to handle the Yamagata-style Imoni, and to hold the event at the Mecca of Imoni parties in the city: Ushioe Bridge. The student representatives from both labs were entrusted with the planning. However, in the month between deciding on the joint party and the planned date, news of bear sightings gradually increased. Bears were spotted near the riverbed close to IMR and even in the city, creating an atmosphere where it seemed best to refrain from holding the Imoni party outdoors. Ultimately, we decided to cancel the outdoor venue and hold the event indoors. The day before, we went shopping, purchasing the ingredients for Yamagata-style Imoni, alcohol, and snacks. (Since we were confident in our victory at the Futsal tournament, we skipped buying sake, knowing the isshobin would be the prize!) On the afternoon of the party, our laboratory transformed into a kitchen, with all the students helping with the cooking. We picked up the pre-ordered food from Niku no Ito, and the party officially began at 5 PM! We enjoyed the two types of Imoni, the food and the drinks, deepening the friendship between the two laboratories. The Imoni party continued until around 10 PM. Afterward, we moved to Kato Lab for a second party, where we opened the prize isshobin of Hakurakusei from the Futsal tournament and enjoyed the evening until late. A big thank you to everyone in Seki Laboratory! We sincerely hope the world becomes safe enough again to hold Imoni parties outdoors!
In Tournament ① on October 29th, our team won all three matches. In Tournament ② on November 5th, we had two matches. We were set for a direct confrontation with our major rival, Komachi-chan (Yoshikawa Lab), who had also achieved a perfect record in Tournament ①. If we won, or even if we drew, the championship was almost certainly ours based on goal difference. However, Team Kato-lab was operating with a bare minimum of players for this tournament. We had the advantage of the "1 Goal = 2 Points" rule for players who are either over 40 or female, but unfortunately, our key player, Professor Kato, was absent. Despite these challenges, Team Kato-lab, which had been aiming for this championship for a year, was burning with fighting spirit and headed to the venue, Footmesse Nagamachi, determined to win! The results of the matches: We achieved decisive victories against Komachi-chan (Yoshikawa Lab) with a score of 4-0 and against Technical Center & Nomura Lab with a score of 5-2! Across all five matches in Tournament ① and ②, we achieved a complete victory with a total of 23 goals scored and only 6 goals conceded. The championship team was awarded a certificate and a isshobin (1.8L bottle) of nihonshu (Japanese sake), Hakurakusei! The detailed breakdown of the 23 goals is as follows: M2/Kaji: 14 points (7 assists), D3/Kurabayashi: 7 points, D1/Fukuda: 1 point, M1/Hayakawa: 1 point. We were also greatly assisted by Assistant Professor Ohashi (a Kato Lab OB and current Assistant Professor at Orimo Lab), who played as a member of our team in both tournaments. Handling the tournament operations while having fewer players and fewer substitutes than the other teams, it was an incredibly reliable team that managed to win decisively. I hope we do our best again next year!
On September 25, Mr. D3/Tang got diploma and successfully completed his Doctoral course. As he will be returning to China to begin his career, we held a party to celebrate both his achievement and his departure. Because Tang came to Japan immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, obtaining his visa took some time, and upon arrival he had to undergo a two-week quarantine. Although he entered Tohoku University in October 2020, he was only able to begin his research activities in Kato lab from January 2021. Since then, he has progressed through the master's and the doctoral program, and also spent six months at Yale University as a GP-MS student. His fluency in Japanese was such that we often forgot he was a foreign student. We are confident that the knowledge and experience he gained through five years of research will be of great value in his future career. And, on September 4, we held a farewell party for D3/Gerelmaa. She returned to Mongolia to work at her home university. We sincerely wish both of them happiness and success in all their future.
We took part in the annual IMR Beer Party. Since it was a bring-your-own-food style event, we pre-ordered a party plate and cutlet sandwiches from "Niku no Ito", a popular butcher shop near IMR. Shortly after the toast, the bingo tournament began. From our lab, visitors Choi-sensei and Kwon-san both won prizes! Choi-sensei was actually the second person overall to get bingo, so she had chance to choose any of the top prizes, but he chose the "treasure box". When she opened it, the treasure turned out to be packes of snacks! We all had a good laugh. After the main party, we moved on to the usual after-party back in our lab. The leftover beer server from the beer party was brought to the Kato lab, and we enjoy until late night.
This is the third time for the three-lab futsal game with Yoshimi Lab.,Nomura Lab.and Kato Lab. This time, Yoshimi Laboratory, which was the first place last year, was the organizer of the game. Kato Lab had 3 M1 students, 3 M2 students, 1 D1 student, 1 D2 student, Eric-sensei and Kato-sensei, so we had 10 members in total, so we could form a team without any helpers (last time we requested helpers from Nagai Lab of Institute of Fluid Science). We won 2-1 against Nomura Lab team 1, 2-1 against Nomura Lab team 2, 5-1 against Yoshimi Lab team 1, and 3-1 against Yoshimi Lab team 2, winning all the games! We scored 12 goals in 4 games, 9 by M2/Kaji, 2 by Kato-sensei and 1 by M1/Hayakawa. In 3 out of 4 games, Kaji scored the first goal and escaped with a win, and in one game, the opponent scored the first goal, but Kaji made a goal immediately and won the game from there. Kato Laboratory was strong this year! Since we got first place, we will be the organizer of the 4th game next year. We have done one round, and next time we may enjoy different game like volleyball??
IMR has an association called "Kyoyukai" for the purpose of deepening friendship. Many staff and students join this "Kyoyukai" and pay membership fees. We have various events such as Hanami, club activities, beer parties and so on. This "Kyoyukai" is organized on a rotating basis by each laboratory, and finally the responsibility has been handed to Kato laboratory this year. Until last Hanami, we were just participants, just enjoying the Hanami, but this year, as the secretary, we organized the Hanami. We started early in the morning to prepare, set up and clean up for the Hanami, and were finally released from our organizing duties in the evening. After that, we drank at the laboratory until late at night, and the long day was over. It was a very successful Hanami because every IMR member enjoyed themselves very much.
