午夜剧场

"I want you to be pioneers." These are the words I received from my mentor when I was enrolled in the Doctoral Programs in graduate school. My current field of expertise is regenerative medical engineering and tissue engineering, which belong to the interdisciplinary field between engineering and medical sciences.

Now in my 40s as an educator and researcher at a university, looking back on my past, I feel that my start as a researcher in this interdisciplinary field was truly rooted in my encounter with this mentor. At that time, I was in the first year of my Master's program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, researching the fatigue properties and strength of stainless steel used in power plants—a completely different topic from what I do now. I never imagined for a moment that I, someone who feels faint at the sight of blood, would become involved in the medical field. However, it happened. It was in March, just as I was finishing my first year of the Master's program. My academic advisor at the time suddenly informed me that he was transferring to a certain national Research Centers and Institutes, and therefore, the laboratory would be closed. Two paths were presented to us students who were about to enter our second year: one was to transfer to a laboratory in the same research field where we could continue similar themes, and the other was to transfer to the laboratory of a newly arriving professor. The new professor, while based in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was researching a field called medical engineering—an interdisciplinary area where two academic fields intersect, which was unfamiliar and even something I thought I was bad at (medical sciences). It is still surprising to me, as I had always been stability-oriented and conservative in my career choices, but I chose the laboratory of my mentor, who specialized in the unknown field of regenerative medical engineering, simply because it seemed interesting. I even ended up advancing to the Doctoral Programs. Truly, the encounter with my mentor at that time and my choice of career path were the turning points that led to who I am today.

I feel that today's youth tend to seek stability in their career paths, perhaps reflecting the unstable social situation. I would be happy if this article could convey even a part of the "pioneer" spirit—the idea that moments of simply following curiosity or a sense of adventure, thinking something seems interesting or exciting, can lead to carving out a life. Of course, I myself intend to push forward with my educational and research activities with the "pioneer" spirit in my heart. Aiming to pioneer new interdisciplinary fields.