Wonderful research life in NIPS

 Five-year doctor course  D4  LIU Chang
 
I am Chang LIU, a D4 student in Division of Biophysics and Neurobiology (Kubo lab). My former expertise was clinical medicine when I was in medical university in China. I met Prof. Kubo in an international conference and have known SOKENDAI since then. During my one-year internship in the hospital, I realized the importance of basic research which could fundamentally support the clinical treatment and found myself becoming more and more interested in it. After graduation from university, I decided to continue my study in research field and join Kubo lab as a PhD student focusing on the structural and functional aspects of the interaction between membrane proteins.
One of the great part of NIPS is that I could have two weeks internship in the lab before I join it. It is a good opportunity for a foreign student like me who has no real experience in experiment and also life in Japan. Thus, I could make a decision after looking through the environment of the whole lab, rather than make a hasty decision without knowing the fact.
Indeed, the academic atmosphere here is super good and friendly to foreign students. Firstly, there is no linguistic problem since all stuffs can speak English. The lectures are given in English and basic daily communication in the lab is not a big issue. Second, there is a plenty of chances to talk and study with the most professional experts in the field not only in our lab but also researchers from outside. In our lab, we have monthly meeting to discuss with lab members for carrying forward one’s own research. Meanwhile, we have interview with two professors in other labs each semester. Furthermore, our school of life science will hold annual retreat for all student from NIPS, NIBB and NIG so that we can enjoy the cross-field talk which may give us more inspiration in our study from different departments. We can also join various conferences to learn the cutting-edge findings and methodology every year from domestic seminar to worldwide symposium. By all aspects I mentioned above, I fully enjoy my research life here.