The 2024 Kyoto University Amgen Scholars Program took place from 7 June to 3 August with 13 scholars taking part. Supported by the Amgen Foundation and dedicated to fostering next-generation innovators in biotechnology and promoting science education, the program enables science undergraduates from Asia, including KyotoU students, to receive research training and guidance at university laboratories.
The 2024 program hosted 13 students to train at the same number of laboratories across eight departments: the Graduate Schools of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Engineering, Biostudies, and Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (GSGAIS), and the Institute of Advanced Energy (IAE), Institute for Life and Medical Sciences (LiMe), and Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS).
In addition to conducting research, the scholars took part in the following activities to discover various facets of Kyoto City and Kyoto University: sightseeing tours, Japanese culture experiences, laboratory visits on the University's Yoshida and Katsura Campuses, and a seminar on graduate school admission organized by the Admission Assistance Office.
Activities also included the Kyoto Symposium on 31 July, where the students shared the outcomes of the research that they had conducted in the program, with their oral and poster presentations both receiving enthusiastic responses.
Another highlight was the Asia Symposium, held 1 and 2 August at the University of Tokyo with the participation of the Amgen Scholars Program's five host institutions. The event saw all of the scholars delivering poster presentations on their research and two from each university orally discussing their findings. The conference's final day featured a banquet, where poster awards were announced with KyotoU scholars sweeping the first three places.
Throughout the program, the participating students conducted research in ways only possible with advanced facilities and in a state-of-the-art environment, experiencing a variety of encounters at their host laboratories, including finding new topics of interest. Kyoto University hopes that these experiences will stay with the scholars for years to come as they build and advance their careers in science.
