2011 has been a memorial year for Germany and Japan for celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty of Amity between the two countries. With the goal to further deepen the partnership between Germany and Japan in the field of science in the next coming 150 years, we will hold an international workshop with young researchers on a theme of interface science, an area with active German-Japan cooperation. It will be held in Flitz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, one of the most advanced research centers in this field.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide opportunities for researchers to present their research outputs, and for them to find possible future collaboration at an international level. The workshop invites about 60 researchers in total, a size in which participants can see and talk with each other. They will be mainly from Japan, Germany and other EU areas.

From Japan, young and promising researchers who lead the future of Japan’s interface science will attend the workshop. Under the mentorship of Prof. Maki Kawai, they have achieved significant results as members of “Structure and Control of Interfaces”, one of the research projects of “Sakigake” (JST-PRESTO program) just closed in FY2011.

From Germany and other EU areas, the leading researchers in the field of interface science are invited, whom the Japanese participants asked to attend as possible counterparts for future collaborative research.

The workshop deals with a wide variety of topics in the following three sessions, with broad themes from physics, chemistry and life science. Each session is a single session, so that all participants join all sessions. In a session, we will secure time not only for researchers to present their results, but also to discuss thoroughly on the theme.

Session I: -Observation, measurement and theory of interfaces-

The properties of interfaces are strongly related to their atomic and electronic structures. It is thus essential to characterize the interface structures precisely and quantitatively in order to understand the fundamental mechanisms of interfaces. In this session, young scientists who are characterizing interfaces with various cutting edge techniques ranging from experimental to theoretical approaches all get together and exchange ideas on structures and control of interfaces in various materials and devices.

Session II: R&D of surface and interface for solid state devices

Solid state devices based on surface and interface have various functionalities which can be utilized for optical, electrical, and magnetic devices. The understanding of interface structure and controllability makes us to develop new functional devices. In this session, we discuss device physics on various material systems including metal, organics, semiconductors, and oxides.

Session III: Functions of bio-interface and their application technologies

Advanced molecular systems of the living things is altered in response to living environment and maintained. Molecular processes occurred at surfaces between cells and the environments are important for the maintenance of the living system. In this session, molecular system of bacterial cell adhesion will be discussed firstly. Next, studies on molecular recognition on the cellular surface, development of functional polymer and a wide variety of nanomaterials that control cellular functions will be shown and discussed together.

This workshop should provide an opportunity for all researchers to develop international collaboration to make a leap forward in their research. It should also act as place for finding new themes which go beyond the fields of expertise, with reciprocal inspiration among participants who gathered under the keyword of interface.