Assistant Professor Michinori Toriyama
・Division of Biological Science, Laboratory of Neural Systems Biology (Inagaki Laboratory)
ＡＡ Ms. Yuka Yamamoto
I have two daughters (5 and 2 years old) who attend kindergarten, and I have been using the AA System 10 hours a week since April 2016. AA Ms. Yamamoto has been helping me with routine experimental work related to gene cloning and construction of expression vectors.
Although we live relatively close to the university, it takes my wife, who is also a researcher, nearly an hour and a half to commute, so I am responsible for dropping her off in the morning and picking her up in the evening. Also, if my child has a fever and the day care center calls me to pick him up, I go. When that happens, I have to stop working. Last year, I had to take about a week off due to flu or viral illnesses. For longer periods, my wife and I will take turns, but in any case, I will not be able to come to the university when my child is sick.
I am grateful that I can ask Ms. Yamamoto of AA to help me with the routine work that needs to be done at such times. Ms. Yamamoto is a veteran who has worked as a research technician at the university for a long time, so I can trust him with my work without having to give him detailed instructions, which is very helpful.
As for my opinion on this program, I heard that 20 hours per week was allocated to female researchers in terms of the number of hours assigned, and I would have liked to receive 20 hours per week of support if possible.
(June, 2017)
