Brief Introduction and Characteristics

　Polymers and other organic functional materials are one of the essential material categories supporting our modern way of life; improvement of their performance as well as the development of novel materials and functions are being actively pursued. In the future, the utilization of organic materials in interdisciplinary areas and the applications in other fields are expected to generate novel value-added organic material systems. In the Graduate School of Organic Materials Science, Yamagata University, education and research are not limited to simply acquiring knowledge of the fundamentals of organic materials, especially in relevance to applications. The education and research are expected to seed interdisciplinary collaborations and inspire an integrated, system-level understanding of organic materials.
　Yonezawa Higher Technical School, the predecessor of the Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, was established in 1910 with the department related to fibers and textiles. In 1913, Professor Itsuzo Hata at the Yonezawa Higher Technical School succeeded in producing rayon for the first time in Japan. Since then, the tradition of research on organic materials has continued in Yonezawa for over a century. The new Graduate School of Organic Materials Science was established in April 2016 by integrating the following departments of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering: the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering and the Department of Organic Device Engineering for the master's program and the Department of Organic Materials Engineering for the doctoral program. The new graduate school consists of the Department of Organic Materials Science with the enrollment capacity of 65 for the master's program and 10 for the doctoral program.

In the new Graduate School, education and research will be pursued to achieve the following objectives and be guided by the following　principles:

• Encourage the spirit of enquiry of the students of organic materials science and develop their ability to independently explore and cultivate novel domains.
• Educate engineers, researchers and educators who can employ their deep understanding of the fundamentals to solve sophisticated challenges, especially in their highly specialized fields of expertise.
• Cultivate engineers, researchers and educators as human beings with high ethicalstandards and a deep commitment to the well-being of humanity.

Admission Policy

The following qualities are desirable in the applicants for the Master's program:

• A basic knowledge of organic materials and the determination to deepen their understanding.
• Leveraging their profound knowledge of organic materials and logically building upon the foundations, a fervent desire to proactively explore and/or perform research and development of organic material systems.
• Commitment to contribute to the wider society using their knowledge and expertise of organic material systems.
• While harmoniously living in and cooperating with society, the ability to independently think, decide and act.
• Compassion for humanity and high ethical standards.

In addition to the above, the following are expected in the applicants to the doctoral program:

• An abiding interest in areas not restricted to their specialization and the ability to apply their knowledge widely.
• Engineers, researchers and educators who are endowed with a global perspective and can excel anywhere in the world.