We are pleased to announce you of the Forum organized by Osaka University. Osaka University hosts an annual forum that brings together international science leaders to explore current trends and specific areas of current research. Previous Osaka University Forums have focused on:

1st: “Life Science” in Washington, D.C., USA, 2001
2nd: “Nano Science ＆ Technology” in Munich, Germany, 2002
3rd: “Information Science” in Lausanne, Switzerland, 2003
4th: “Humane Studies on Inter-face” in Strasbourg, France, 2004
5th: “New Science toward the Ultimate and Unity” in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 2005
6th: “Forefront and Future in Medicine” in San Diego, USA, 2006; and,
7th: “New Challenge in Economics: Theory ＆ Practice” in Groningen, Netherland, 2007

The 8th Forum will be held in San Francisco from December 8th - 10th 2008 with the generous financial support by the Osaka University Global Center of Excellence (G-COE) Program “Global Education and the Research Center for Bio-environmental Chemistry” which was endorsed for the period of 2008-2012 by the Ministry of Education and Science, Japan. The main theme of the 8th Osaka University Forum is “Bio-environmental Chemistry”. We would greatly appreciate your presence at the Forum.

Kiyokazu Washida, President, Osaka University

Chikaosa Tanimoto, Professor, Executive Director,
Osaka University San Francisco Center for Education ＆ Research

We have organized the Osaka University Forum, which is the first US-Japan joint symposium focusing on chemical challenges to stop global warming, at Milton Marks Conference Center and Great Hall “Milton Marks Auditorium” in San Francisco on December 8th-10th, 2008. Principal investigators of three major education and research projects on the global energy and environmental issues in US and Japan, "Powering the Planet", "Helios" and "Global COE Bio-Environmental Chemistry", will discuss the current progress and future prospects of chemical challenges to stop global warming together with young scientists involved in these projects from Caltech, MIT, UC Berkeley and Osaka University for the first time.

The Global COE Program "Bio-environmental Chemistry" of the Chemistry groups at Osaka University (Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Science, and Graduate School of Engineering Science) has been working to realize a sustainable society in which both mankind and nature can co-exist and to lead toward a solution to environmental problems. The rapid consumption of fossil fuel has now caused unacceptable environmental problems such as the greenhouse effect, which could lead to disastrous climatic consequences. Thus, renewable and clean energy resources are urgently required in order to solve global energy and environmental issues. Among renewable energy resources, solar energy is by far the largest exploitable resource. The next step is therefore to further develop previous work and to aim for an actual realization of the fundamental solving of global environment and energy resource problems by utilizing solar energy. Obviously a solution to all global environment and energy resource problems is not easy to achieve. This is an issue that we need to address as a long-term international strategy. Therefore we are aiming at organizing the various research results to date for the future generations to lead Japan. Based on this standpoint, this Global COE Program’s goal is to generate the innovative advanced science and technology in order to fundamentally solve the problem of energy resource, which is the high-priority issue of Japan with scarce natural resources. And the other goal is to form international centers of excellence for education and research for top-level studies in environmental science, which emphasizes relationship among nature and life from a global point of view.

In the United States, the Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI Solar) has also focused on the efficient and economical conversion of solar energy into stored chemical fuels. Through this CCI, the NSF has established a partnership with the scientific community to develop the fundamental enabling chemistry that will ultimately deliver clean fuels produced from the sun. Solar energy research is inherently interdisciplinary, involving inorganic and organic synthesis, solid state chemistry and physics, electrochemistry, chemical kinetics and mechanism, and theoretical and computational chemistry. In addition, it involves concepts of homogeneous and interfacial chemistry between solids, liquids, and gases.

The Helios effort is also a solar energy initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley in the United States. The primary goal of this effort is to develop methods to “store” solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuel. Several approaches under investigation include the generation of biofuels from biomass, the generation of biofuels by algae, and the direct conversion of water and carbon dioxide to fuels by the use of solar energy.

The ultimate goal of our Global COE program "Bio-environmental Chemistry" is virtually the same as that of the Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI Solar) and also that of a Helios solar energy initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley in the United States. Thus, the purpose of this Osaka University Forum in San Francisco is to cooperate intensively and to make a perfect marriage between the researchers at the Global Education and Research Center for Bio-Environmental Chemistry, the Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation, and the Helios Solar Energy Initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley in an international environment off-campus. We hope to place particular emphasis on encouragement of young scientists and promotion of their global thinking to solve one of the outstanding problems in 21st Century science – the efficient and economical conversion of solar energy into stored chemical fuels.

The Organizing Committee of the Osaka University Forum cordially invites you to participate in the forum. You will gain information regarding the most recent developments at the Global Education and Research Center for Bio-Environmental Chemistry, the Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation, and the Helios Solar Energy Initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley. With your participation, we will have an opportunity to create personal friendship and exchange scientific ideas among chemists, young researchers and students with the same aim.

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco in December, 2008.

Professor Shunichi Fukuzumi

Department of Material and Life Science
Division of Advanced Science and Biotechnology
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
Director, Global Education and Research Center for Bio-Environmental Chemistry, Osaka University