From Dec. 15 to Dec. 18, the 2nd Workshop/Seminar of the A3 Foresight Program for “Junctioned Photocatalytic System for Efficient Overall Water Splitting”, organized by Prof. Kazunari Domen-Jun Kubota group in Tokyo University, was held in Tokyo Grand Hotel, Tokyo, Japan.
This A3 Foresight Program was supported by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRFK) for 3 years starting from year 2010. The representative teams involved in this Program from each country are Prof. Can Li’s group, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, Prof. Kazunari Domen-Jun Kubota’s group, Tokyo University, Japan, and Prof. Jae Sung Lee’s group, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea, respectively.
The seminar was chaired by associate professor Jun Kubota. Followed by the opening ceremony speeches delivered by Prof. Can Li and Prof. Jae Sung Lee, 3 keynote lectures, 20 oral talks and 10 posters are presented. More than 70 people are participated in the seminar. The delegates from three countries are mainly young research scientists, PhD and MS students. They extensively discussed the recently progress in the field of photocatalytic splitting of water, with particular emphasis on the emerging science and technology for the development of the junction based semiconductor photocatalytic systems for overall water splitting. Through this three days seminar, the key scientific problems hindering the efficiency of photocatalytic splitting of water were more clearly understood and future collaboration work was identified. A3 Foresight Program provided an important platform for the young research scientists in three countries to exchange ideas, discussing research topics, culture exchange and making friends, which will benefit not only the research program itself, but also future research career of the young research scientists.
It should mention that the first A3 workshop was organized by Prof. Can Li’s group earlier in January of 2011 in Dalian. And the Third workshop is determined to be held in June of 2012 in Korea.
