Kanazawa University (KU)
金沢大学

Japan

Established nearly seven decades ago but with roots stretching back over a century and a half, Kanazawa University has a proud tradition of contributing to the development of Japan and the world. Only two and a half hours by bullet train from Tokyo, the university has become the leading university on the Sea of Japan coast, with more than 10,000 students enrolled in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Embracing globalization

Kanazawa University is strongly committed to implementing global standards for education, training and research. Realizing the importance of establishing networks and collaboration in these areas, the university has recently developed new goals to help it to address the challenges of the future. In particular, it will further its contribution to society by promoting international and interdisciplinary education and research through establishing the Kanazawa University Model for Globalization, which will consolidate Kanazawa University’s place at the centre of higher education and research in East Asia.

Strengthening priority research

Kanazawa University is cultivating the full spectrum of research — from fundamental investigations to technology-related studies. In particular, Kanazawa University’s five priority research areas are nanoscience research using innovative atomic force microscopy techniques; nutrition-related diseases; cancer progression; cultural-resource studies; and innovative material sciences based on supermolecules.

Promoting interdisciplinarity

Kanazawa University is adopting a collaborative and network-based approach to foster outstanding researchers who work internationally and across disciplines to engage in new challenges that require breaking conventional molds. To this end, the university established the Institute for Frontier Science Initiative (InFiniti) in 2015 to further promote interdisciplinary research and foster global scientists. The 16 research units in the initiative are primarily led by young principal investigators in conjunction with unit leaders.

Encouraging brain circulation

With its goal of being “a research university dedicated to education, while opening its doors to local and global society,” Kanazawa University seeks to be a hub for top-class education and research in East Asia. It aims to provide a world-class international research environment that attracts excellent young researchers who are inspired to tackle new challenges.

1 March 2016 - 28 February 2017

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Kanazawa University (KU) published between 1 March 2016 - 28 February 2017 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the WFC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

AC	FC	WFC
58	24.63	24.63

Outputs by subject (WFC)

Subject	AC	FC	WFC
Chemistry	19	10.83	10.83
Physical Sciences	16	6.54	6.54
Life Sciences	26	7.81	7.81
Earth & Environmental Sciences	2	0.13	0.13

Highlight of the month: Kanazawa University (KU)

A calm oasis in a galaxy cluster far, far away

Supermassive black holes could be controlling galaxy growth by overheating intergalactic gas.

Black holes in the centre of galaxy groups spew out vast amounts of energy thought to shake up gas within the cluster, creating turbulence that makes it tricky to calculate the cluster’s total mass. The Hitomi collaboration, including researchers from Kanazawa University, launched a satellite to measure gas motion in the gigantic Perseus cluster, 240 million light years away.

Before a technical error condemned the spacecraft, it sent back vivid X-ray images of Perseus. The space between the galaxies at its core appeared surprisingly calm, suggesting that measurements of galaxy cluster mass do not need to be corrected for turbulence after all.

The images also revealed that energy from the black hole was heating the gas to 10 to 100 million degrees Celsius. Stars can only form when the gas is cool enough to slow down and clump together, so the black hole is effectively controlling galaxy growth, the authors say.

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