School of Engineering

Associate Professor Junichi Inamoto

Power generation using renewable energy requires the use of stationary storage batteries for power leveling. Lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used as storage batteries, use resources such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper, and there is a risk that the batteries will not be manufactured in the future due to soaring raw material prices or supply disruptions. Therefore, we are engaged in research and development to realize secondary batteries that use inexpensive raw materials with no resource supply risk.

School of Human Science and Environment

Professor Mizue Ohashi

In forests, various biological activities centered around trees create flows of materials. We aim to unravel what kinds of ecosystem services (various benefits derived from ecosystems) are generated by these material cycles. Our focus is primarily on phenomena occurring underground, which are challenging to study. We are conducting research not only in Japan’s temperate forests but also in tropical and boreal forests overseas. By analyzing these data sets, we seek to understand the invisible world.