Picture of the award medal

A conferral ceremony will be held to bestow the first Toshiko Yuasa Award.

Time and date	Wednesday, March 26, 2014. 3:00–5:00 PM.
Place	Ochanomizu University, Graduate School of Humanities & Sciences/University Innovation Research Building, 6th floor Hall
Program	Greetings from Sawako Hanyu, President of Ochanomizu University (10 min.) Greetings from Junji Haba, Director of the Toshiko Yuasa Laboratory (10 min.) Announcement of the selection results (10 min.) Conferral Ceremony (10 min.) Presentations by the Awardees (80 min.) Miwae Yamazaki's Achievements Research and writing about Dr. Toshiko Yuasa Due to the passing of the awardee, Toshitsugu Yamazaki and Kaoru Tachi, relatives of the deceased, will give the presentation. Atsuko Ichikawa Contributions to neutrino oscillation experiments

• Event hosts:
  Akio Sugamoto, Chairperson of the AY 2013 Selection Committee for the First Toshiko Yuasa Award, and Dean of the Faculty of Science at Ochanomizu University
• Inquiries:
  Public Relations Office, Promotion of Gender Equality Section ()

• Please see the following link for details on the reasons for establishing the Toshiko Yuasa Award.
  • The Toshiko Yuasa Award from Ochanomizu University (J)

In order to commemorate the natural science and related research achievements of Dr. Toshiko Yuasa, Ochanomizu University established the Toshiko Yuasa Award with cooperation from the Toshiko Yuasa Laboratory (TYL), jointly operated by the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) (an Inter-University Research Institute Corporation) as a collaborative project between Japan and France. The award will be one of the official Ochanomizu University Awards.

Toshiko Yuasa (1909‒1980): After graduating in science in 1931 from Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School (currently, Ochanomizu University), Yuasa entered the Physics Department of the Tokyo Bunrika University (currently, Tsukuba University), where she became a junior assistant after graduation. From 1938, she served as assistant professor at Tokyo Women's Normal School.

In 1939, she passed the French Government's exam for financial aid for foreign students. She traveled to France in 1940 and began research under Dr. Frédéric Joliot-Curie at the Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory of the Collège de France. She received a doctorate in science from the French government in 1943. Due to the Second World War, she returned to Japan, after which she became a professor at Tokyo Women's Normal School, then at Ochanomizu University. She mentored many female students in the natural sciences and other fields. Her particularly remarkable scientific achievements include many years of nuclear research (1941‒1945, 1949‒1980) at the Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory of the Collège de France and at the Laboratoire d'Orsay. The quality of her experiments and research in nuclear science earned her the label of the “first internationally active Japanese female natural scientist.” Additionally, she worked hard to bring about joint Japan‒France research between the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

At the same time, she was very talented at Japanese waka poetry and at sketching. She wrote many essays, including Paris Zuiso, leaving a very lasting impression on women with ambitions in science, art, and letters. Dr. Toshiko Yuasa lived by the words "jusqu’au bout" (strive to the end). The Toshiko Yuasa Award was established with the hope of passing her legacy in Japan and France down to future generations.

• (Source: Ochanomizu University Digital Archives)
  Database of Pioneering Women Researchers
  • Toshiko Yuasa