About IMRAM
Pursuing Multidisciplinary Research for R&D Needs
Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM, or Tagen-Ken in Japanese) is one of institutes of Tohoku University, Japan. It was founded in 2001 as the successor of three prestigious research institutes with about 50 years’ tradition; “Institute for Advanced Materials Processing, “Research Institute for Scientific Measurements” and “Institute for Chemical Reaction Science.”
This institute focuses on the science for multi-sources of materials including organic, inorganic, biological and their hybrid materials. It also denotes a new concept of material science by fusing different fields of science and technologies such as, physics, chemistry, biology, process engineering, environmental science and more.
The mission of IMRAM is “To promote basic and application of multidisciplinary material science, to educate the next generations in this field to bring up international leading scientists and engineers and to contribute to the global human communities.
History
| March 1941 | Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy, Tohoku Imperial University was founded. |
| January 1943 | Research Institute for Scientific Measurements, Tohoku Imperial University was founded. |
| January 1944 | Chemical Research Institute of Non ‐ Aqueous Solution, Tohoku Imperial University was founded. |
| May 1949 | These three Institutes were reorganized as research institutes affiliated to Tohoku University. |
| April 1991 | Chemical Research Institute of Non ‐ Aqueous Solution was reorganized as Institute for Chemical Reaction Science. |
| April 1992 | Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy was reorganized as Institute for Advanced Materials Processing. |
| April 2001 | Research Institute for Scientific Measurements, Institute for Chemical Reaction Science, and Institute for Advanced Materials Processing were restructured and consolidated as Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM). |
| April 2010 | IMRAM started the activity as a member of the Network Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices. |
| April 2010 | IMRAM started the activity as a member of the Network Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices. |
| March 2018 | Research Center for Sustainable Science & Engineering was closed. |
| April 2018 | Collaborative Research Division of Non-ferrous Metallurgy and Environmental Science (～March 2023) and the Center for Mineral Processing and Metallurgy was started. |
| November 2019 | Collaborative Research Division of Advanced Synchrotron Radiation Metrogy started.(～June 2020) |
| May 2020 | Collaborative Research Division of Advanced Analysis of Iron and Steelmaking Processes was started.(～April 2023) |
| April 2021 | Center for Advanced Microscopy and Spectroscopy and Phlymer-Hybrid Materials Research Center and Center for Exploration of New Inorganic Materials were closed. Materials-Measurement Hybrid Research Center was started. |
| April 2023 | Photonic Meta Sensing Co-creation Research Center was started.(～March 2026) Collaborative Research Division of Non-ferrous Metallurgy and Environmental Science (second term) was started.(～March 2028) |
| April 2024 | Soft Material Research Center was started. Advanced Material Analysis Co-creation Research Center was started.(～March 2028) |
Successive Directors
 | WASEDA, Yoshio First Director（April 1, 2001 – November 15, 2002） |
 | NAKANISHI, Hachiro Second Director（November 16, 2022 – November 5, 2005） |
 | SAITO, Fumio Third Director（November 6, 2005 – March 31, 2010） |
 | KAWAMURA, Junichi Fourth Director（April 1, 2010 – March 31, 2015） |
 | MURAMATSU, Atsushi Fifth Director（April 1, 2014 – March 31, 2020） |
 | TERAUCHI, Masami Sixth Director（April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2024） |