Look Who's at the Lab: Keizo Murata
In Look Who's at the Lab, we profile some of the hundreds of scientists who visit our lab every year.
Keizo Murata
Job Title: Professor of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University
Mag Lab user since: ~ 2000
Number of visits to lab: about two dozen
Dates of most recent experiment: Feb. 14, 2011 — Feb. 25, 2011
Your home is in: Sakai City, Japan
Distance traveled (from home to lab): ~ 7,250 miles
Research interests: superconductivity; density waves
Web site http://matr01.sci.osaka-cu.ac.jp/CHODENDO/
E-mail: muratak@sci.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Title: Clarification of Field Induced CDW in HMTSF-TCNQ
Other participants: James Brooks, senior investigator, FSU Physics; Woun Kang, senior investigator, Dept. of Physics at Ewha Womans University (in Seoul, South Korea)
Synopsis: Search for new electronic properties or phases of highly correlated systems (organic conductors and superconductors) and solve their mechanism.
Facility: DC Field Facility, NHMFL, Tallahassee
Techniques: Transport and thermodynamic properties under the combined conditions of high pressure, temperature (down to 10 mK) and high magnetic field.
Q: What's the best thing about working at the lab?
A:"I am very interested in working with high fields and high pressures, and we get the highest magnetic field here. But it is not only the value of the magnetic field, it is the support we get at the Magnet Lab." For example, he said, the machine shop always quickly makes any necessary modifications of his equipment. "I was very much impressed from the first visit. People are very kind here. "
Q: What you miss most about home when you're here:
A: Playing tennis! He's been a player for more than three decades, and even manages an informal tennis team at his university. He packs a racket whenever he travels — but whether he gets to use it during his Mag Lab visits is another matter. "People are hard workers here," he said. "I rarely get a chance to play."
Q: What's the most unscientific thing about you?
A:He is a voracious reader of books about world history — and dinosaurs.
His interest in world history has sparked a life-long love of world travel, which in turn has led him to learn several foreign languages. He speaks and reads French and English, and reads Russian and Greek. He is particularly fond of the French language. "People can communicate more deeply in French," he said. He also enjoys classical music, especially the work of Bach.
Q: Scientist and non-scientist, living or dead: Whom would you most like to meet?
A:For non-scientist, he would like to meet Ryōtarō Shiba (1923 – 1996), a renown Japanese novelist and essay writer famous for his cultural and historical observations about Japan and its relationship with the world. The scientist he would most enjoy meeting is ancient philosopher-scientist-mathematician René Descartes (1596 – 1650), a key figure in the Scientific Revolution.
Q: What are you reading now?
A: During his last visit to the lab, he was working his way through "Stories of the Romans," by acclaimed Japanese author Nanami Shiono (b. 1937), known for her historical accounts of ancient Rome and Italy during the Renaissance. "Stories" is her magnum opus, a set of 15 volumes that examines why the Roman Empire was able to successfully rule the world for 1,200 years. Shiono postulates that the great empire began to crumble when Rome no longer acted with tolerance toward the religions and cultural beliefs of the people it conquered and absorbed.
Q: What advice would you give someone just starting out in your field?
A: "I encourage students to have childish interest eternally, irrespective of aging. This is an important mentality for a scientist: to have good curiosity for everything." He worries that today's young people "are too careful," and reluctant to be playful in their scientist inquires because they fear making a mistake.
Q: What keeps you awake at night?
A: The results of his experiments keep him awake, as well as his thoughts and plans of what to tackle next.
Q: Your favorite quote:
A: Comes from French philosopher and writer René Descartes (1596 – 1650). "Je pense, donc je suis." "I think, therefore I am."
Q: Parting thoughts on science today:
A: "The history of doing science is a history of removing prejudice. People suffer from many prejudices, and in that sense, education is important. For example, when I was studying, nobody knew what memory is, but now, it's well examined. Science helps the reasonable person."
For Dr. Murata's full list of more than 300 publications, visit his university web site:
http://matr01.sci.osaka-cu.ac.jp/CHODENDO/muratak/index_e.html
Date posted: June 2011
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