Theme;  Connecting happiness together!
Concerto with nature and co-creating in Nagano!

President of the Annual Meeting
Toshiro Sakai
 

 

　Good morning/afternoon and a warm welcome to all of you!

　My name is Toshio Sakai. I am a professor at Shinshu University, and I have taken over as the President of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Oil Chemists’ Society from Professor Yoshimune Nonomura (professor at Yamagata University). The next annual meeting of the Japan Oil Chemists’ Society will be held at the Faculty of Engineering at Shinshu University (Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture) from (Wednesday) September 3 to (Friday) September 5, 2025. The venue is Nagano City, which is home to the famous “Kawanakajima” battlefield where Uesugi Kenshin fought against Takeda Shingen for over 12 years. Nagano City is located in the northern part of Nagano Prefecture, with the Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu, including Iizuna, Togakushi, Kurohime, and other mountains as the backdrop and the Chikumagawa and Saigawa rivers flowing through the center of the city. We hope that you will enjoy the natural beauty of Nagano and its local cuisine, including sake, soba noodles, oyaki (a type of dumpling), and Shinshu beef, which is raised by feeding the cattle apples and is as delectable as the Yonezawa beef that we had last time.

　As the name suggests, the Japan Oil Chemists’ Society brings together scientific and industrial researchers and engineers working in the fields of “oils, fats and related materials” and actively conducts research, announces research results and plans, and manages business operations. At this year’s annual meeting, universities, research institutions, and industry will collaborate and work together, and we hope that the Industry–Academia Collaboration Symposium and Select Lecture Awards will serve as an invaluable platform for matching seeds and needs. We expect that the new encounters at the Industry–Academia Collaboration Symposium will provide opportunities to create an exciting future. The Select Lecture is an important avenue for members to present their selected innovative research results from among the research that they have published. 

　The Japan Oil Chemists’ Society is actively creating value for consumers based on its research results. The award-winning lectures for the Select Lectures are chosen from public submissions of innovative research results that are more advanced than what the members would like to discuss. The application deadline is Friday, April 18th, 2025. Please apply via the Annual Meeting website.

　Select Lectures that were introduced at the WCOS 2022 will be held again this year. In this program, we invite members to submit innovative research results, and we will select outstanding research results to be presented at the annual meeting.
　The targeted research areas for this year's call are:
     1）Oleo materials and nanotechnologies 
  　2）Science on lipids, fats and oils, nutrition, health function and foods 
  　3）Surfactant, detergent, cleaning and interface science
　The awards include an Award of JOCS Select Lecturer, a supplementary prize of 30,000 yen, free registration and reception at the conference, and free publication in the Journal of Oleo Science. We encourage everyone to apply for this program. The selection results will be announced on April 18, 2025 (Friday).

　One can reach Nagano City from Tokyo, the Hokuriku, and Tohoku regions by Shinkansen; from the Tokai region by the limited express Shinano; and from the Kansai and Kyushu regions by flight or Shinkansen. The distance from the east exit of Nagano Station to the Shinshu University Nagano (Faculty of Engineering) Campus is about 1.6 km, and the commute takes 5–10 minutes by a dedicated shuttle bus. There are several business hotels in the city; we request you to kindly make your own reservations. According to the information provided by the Convention Center, no large events, such as academic conferences or concerts, are expected to be organized during the conference period. We look forward to seeing you in Nagano!