On 1 March, Kyoto University held an award ceremony for the winners of the 16th Tachibana Award for Outstanding Women Researchers. The annual award honors the University's early-career women scholars who have made exceptional achievements.
With a large number of online viewers tuning in from both on and off campus, the 2024 ceremony began with remarks from Dr Kyoko Inagaki, executive vice-president for gender equality, international affairs, and external affairs, who as the award committee chair reflected on the selection process. President Nagahiro Minato then presented a certificate and plaque to each of the two winners, one in the student category and the other in the researcher category. The student winner was Hiyori Takebe, first-year doctoral student, Graduate School of Engineering, and the researcher winner was Ellen Hidemi Fukuda, associate professor, Graduate School of Informatics. Each also received a Wacoal Prize from Mr Keisuke Kawanishi, Wacoal Corporation's representative director, president, and CEO.
Next, three candidates selected for honorable mentions, one in the student category and two in the researcher category, accepted certificates and additional prizes, also from President Minato and Representative Director Kawanishi: Yanran Wang, third-year doctoral student, Graduate School of Engineering, Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS), and Mie Torii, assistant professor, Graduate School of Medicine.
President Minato then delivered a congratulatory address, wishing all the awardees continued success in their research, followed by Representative Director Kawanishi 's congratulations.
Afterward, Ms Takebe and Dr Fukuda presented their winning research, the former discussing "Comprehensive synthesis of optically active caged hydrocarbon molecules and construction of chemical space by network-type database", and the latter, "Research on descent methods for multiobjective optimization problems", as the ceremony presenters and others at the venue listened attentively.
The lively event concluded with speeches from Ms Wang, Ms Pokharel, and Dr Torii.
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Kyoto University Tachibana Award for Outstanding Women Researchers
