Tsuyoshi Saitoh

Why did you become a scientist?

My dream since I was a child.

I read many children's science books since childhood, and I developed a vague yearning to explore the wonders of the world. I enrolled in university to study post-genome research, which was growing at the time and wished to enter the bioscience department, which was highly competitive at the time. However, my "university life" was unexpectedly enjoyable, I was unfortunately assigned to the chemistry department. Fortunately, as I studied chemistry hard to avoid repeating a year, I was fascinated by the chemical phenomena in the nanoworld that dominate the real world, and I came to wish to conduct research on manipulating living organisms with chemistry. I was also interested in education because my parents worked in education, so I chose this carrier to pursue my dream with students at university.

What are the characteristics of your lab?

Create novel molecules that don't exist in the world with your own hands.

Chemistry is one of the few research fields in which you can create new molecules that don't exist in the world with your hands. Therefore, it is important to create new molecules that you come up with but not that someone has come up with or that already exist. In my laboratory, under the basic concept of "manipulating living systems with chemistry at will", I always wish my colleagues to conduct research with a free-thinking based on curiosity such as "I do want to make such molecules!". Free thinking requires solid knowledge/experience, a broad perspective, and enough mental space, so in addition to chemistry education, I actively set opportunities for communication not only inside of a group but also with researchers in different fields.

What are you most interested in lately?

My interests are Ramen and Beer.

Tsukuba area is famous for Ramen, and it is said that even if you went to a Ramen restaurant for 3 meals/365 days, it is impossible to conquer all the Ramen on the menu in Tsukuba. I have achieved to visit almost all ramen restaurants in the last decade, so my next goal is to conquer all ramen menus;) The other thing I like is beer. I hooked on beer when I lived in Germany, and I’ve been studying beer by drinking local ones when I visit foreign countries and local regions.