Yoji Kawano Visiting Associate Professor
・Division of Biological Science, NAIST
・Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology junior group leader
ＡＡ Mr. Kenichi Kosami
I used the Academic Assistantship (AA) system when my children were 6 years old (2011 academic year) and 9 years old (2014 academic year). Last year, with the help of Mr. Osami, who is an expert in 3D structural analysis, we were able to efficiently produce mutants and save a lot of cost and time for experiments, which enabled us to publish six research papers. Thank you for your support.
Thanks to this program, Mr. Osami is now working with me as a postdoctoral researcher at my current research institute in China. In our field of research, the skills of technical staff in charge of analysis do not develop in one year. The more experience they gain, the more their skills improve, so I hope this program can be used over a longer period of time.
I think that the environment for continuing research while having children depends more on the mindset of the lab director (how he or she has been involved in raising children) than on the university system as a whole. Universities are inevitably male-centered societies, so if we can improve the way men think about child-rearing, I think we can create an ideal environment where the gender equality office is not needed. I think that changing men's attitudes is the most important and the most difficult thing to do. For myself, I would like to contribute to creating an environment where many researchers can happily do research, without forgetting my current feelings and experiences about child-rearing.
(July, 2015)
