FIRST and S-Innovation’s
“1^st International Conference on Advanced Photonic Polymers”

An international conference on photonics polymers (ICAPP 2011) was held over two days from 1 to 2 December 2011.

This conference was established under the unifying desire of how we can contribute to Japan’s recovery with photonics polymers between Professor Koike, core researcher of the “FIRST Program” in the Cabinet Office, and Specially Appointed Professor Miyata, program officer of the JST’s S-Innovation “Development of Advanced Information and Communication Technology with Photonics Polymers.”

Ninety domestic and international researchers active in photonics polymer research around the world, including former Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Sune Svanberg, made presentations on the latest research results. Themes such as the importance of cooperation transcending national borders to restore and recover from a major disaster that may occur anytime anywhere, and science and technology’s contributions to overcome difficulties like various disasters were covered, and the importance of having face-to-face communication that is resilient in disasters was also discussed.

A total of 750 people, including researchers and the general public, attended the conference and contributed to the lively discussions.

Through this conference, it is hoped that a network of international researchers will be established and research toward a safe and secure world will further develop.