The forum, titled “Explore ideas and expand networks across WPI centers,” was held on March 2nd at Mokuzai Kaikan on Tokyo Bay. It brought together early-career researchers from the 18 WPI institutes and fostered creative discussions across diverse fields.

The day started with opening remarks from Akira Ukawa, the WPI Program Director, followed by special talks from former WPI researchers reflecting on how their time at WPI contributed to the development of their careers. This was followed by short talks by early-career researchers in two parallel sessions, and a subsequent poster session. From QUP, two postdoctoral fellows, Thomas Schwenberger and Xiaolin Ma, joined the forum and took part in both the parallel sessions and the poster session.

“It was a short five-minute presentation for a non-expert audience, but the poster session gave us an opportunity to learn about people’s work in greater detail. The short talks made it easier to explore fields outside my own, while the poster session allowed for deeper discussions, particularly on physics-related topics,” said Thomas Schwenberger, who also found exchanges with researchers in biology stimulating.

“The diversity of topics made it easy to explore research beyond my own field. Most talks focused on materials science and biology, yet I also found the discussions on cosmology, stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds, and quantum science particularly engaging. The event was very well organized, and I am grateful to the WPI program for providing such a valuable platform for young researchers to exchange ideas and connect across disciplines,” said Xiaolin Ma.

Building on the success of this meeting, the WPI program plans to hold the forum on a regular basis. QUP looks forward to continuing its active participation in this initiative, further strengthening connections and fostering interdisciplinary exchange among early-career researchers.