President Chiang announces Negishi Fellowship for Japan-Purdue Collaboration at US ambassador residence in Tokyo

 

From March 28-30, a Purdue University delegation led by President Mung Chiang visited Japan and held 17 meetings with government officials, university presidents, industry leaders and alumni organizations.

On March 29 at the historic ambassador’s residence in Tokyo, Chiang met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel. At the reception hosted by Ambassador Emanuel, Chiang announced the new Negishi Fellowship for Japan-Purdue Collaboration, which will grow the bidirectional student exchanges and research collaboration between top Japanese universities and Purdue in trusted technology development.

Negishi came to Purdue in 1963 to work as a postdoctoral researcher under Herbert C. Brown. Negishi stayed until 1972, returned in 1979 and retired as the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in 2019. Negishi died in 2021. His work in creating a catalytic method to build complex organic molecules necessary for numerous purposes – from pharmaceutical manufacturing to electronics – led to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010.

“Purdue has long-standing partnerships with top Japanese universities across many disciplines, and the state of Indiana has over 300 Japanese business sites,” Chiang said. “We are excited to celebrate long-standing partnerships, launch new ones, and engage at national and subnational levels of the U.S.-Japan relation ahead of the G7 Summit in Japan this spring.”

The Purdue delegation’s trip included 17 meetings with leaders of governmental bodies, universities and corporations, centered around deepening and broadening the ties between Purdue and Japan:

• Director General Fukunaga of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on tech diplomacy, semiconductors collaboration and trusted digital transformation.

• Governor Yamamoto of Gunma Prefecture, along with academic and industry leaders including the president of Gunma University and the CEO of Yajima, to discuss collaboration with Purdue in advanced manufacturing.

• Tohoku University President Ohno to celebrate the 25th anniversary and continuing of Purdue’s partnership with Tohoku, including in semiconductors, quantum, spintronics and more. Chiang met with President Nagata of Tsukuba University, who also serves as the president of the Japan Association of National Universities, as well as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and leaders from Utsunomiya University and Nagoya Women’s University.

• Subaru President and CEO Nakamura to discuss further collaboration with one of Tippecanoe County’s largest employers since 1989. Japan is the largest source of foreign direct investment to the state of Indiana.

• Discussions on economic development and research collaboration with companies including Fujitsu, Honda, Micron, IHI aerospace, Renesas Electronics, Tokyo Electron Limited, Hirotsu Biosciences, as well as the director of international affairs of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), a comprehensive economic organization with a membership comprised of nearly 1,500 representative companies of Japan.

Chiang also visited with leaders from the Purdue Club of Japan, presenting club president Makoto “Mac” Kaneuji with an autographed Boilermaker football. Kaneuji, who earned his PhD in civil engineering from Purdue, is the former head of the Japan American Football Association.

Chiang was accompanied by Alyssa Wilcox, chief of staff and senior vice president of partnerships; Jon Ferency, senior strategic director of business development at Purdue Research Foundation; Hadley Thomas, deputy chief of staff; and Paul Roland, director of Indiana Economic Development Corporation in Japan.