About IMRAM

About IMRAM　｜　History　｜　Successive Directors

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

1941	March	Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy, Tohoku Imperial University was founded.
1943	January	Research Institute for Scientific Measurements, Tohoku Imperial University was founded.
1944	January	Chemical Research Institute of Non ‐ Aqueous Solution, Tohoku Imperial University was founded.
1949	May	These three Institutes were reorganized as research institutes affiliated to Tohoku University.
1991	April	Chemical Research Institute of Non ‐ Aqueous Solution was reorganized as Institute for Chemical Reaction Science.
1992	April	Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy was reorganized as Institute for Advanced Materials Processing.
2001	April	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).
2010	April	IMRAM started the activity as a member of the Network Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices.
2018	March	Research Center for Sustainable Science & Engineering was closed.
2018	April	Collaborative Research Division of Non-ferrous Metallurgy and Environmental Science (～March 2023) and the Center for Mineral Processing and Metallurgy was started.
2019	November	Collaborative Research Division of Advanced Synchrotron Radiation Metrogy started.(～June 2020)
2020	May	Collaborative Research Division of Advanced Analysis of Iron and Steelmaking Processes was started.(～April 2023)
2021	April	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.
2023	April	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)
2024	April	Soft Material Research Center was started. Advanced Material Analysis Co-creation Research Center was started.(～March 2028)
2025	May	MITSUI KINZOKU x Tohoku University Co-creation Research Center for Advanced Materials Shaping the Future was started.(～March 2028)
2025	November	NanoFrontier x Nittobo x Tohoku Univ. Co-creation Research Center for Accelerating Innovation with Nanomaterials was started.(～October 2028)
2026	January	UBE x Tohoku University Co-creation Research Center for Advanced Materials Shaping the Future was started.(～December 2028)

Successive Directors