GLP-GEfIL

Ms. Sora Yamaguchi, the 3rd year Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences (Dai 2 ki sei), was awarded the University of Tokyo President’s Prize in AY2023.

This time, the award selection category is in the field of Academic Achievement. In recent years, to prevent the crisis brought about by global climate change, a rapid shift has been made from the excessive use of fossil resources, which is one of the causes of climate change, to the use of biomass. Since the most abundant biomass on earth is wood, and its main component is cellulose, there are high expectations for technologies to degrade cellulose into glucose and provide it for bio-based manufacturing. From biochemical and structural biological perspectives, she has revealed some thermotolerant and catalytic mechanisms of cellulase, an enzyme mushrooms produce to degrade wood.

In the GLP-GEfIL program, she took a summer program to learn about the carbon cycle and sustainable forestry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, for her GEfIL Abroad Program. As for GEfIL Independent Research Project PHASE2, she belonged to the Sustainability team mentored by Professor Kensuke Fukushi, where she conducted field research in the Pacific Island nation of Palau and proposed a roadmap for establishing a resource-circulating society.

In addition, after completing GEfIL, she became a council member of the GEfIL ALUMNI GROUP for three years during her master’s and Ph.D. courses and worked on managing the network.

She commented, “Meeting seniors, colleagues, and juniors from various faculties and backgrounds whom I respect and gaining international and interdisciplinary experience at GEfIL during my undergrad has greatly inspired me. I want to thank all of you who have supported me.”

We would like to congratulate Ms. Yamaguchi for receiving the President's Prize. Congratulations!

（2024/03/28）