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Overview

Our Vision

Science, that is, basic natural science, explores nature's universal truths, and aims to build a foundation of natural philosophy. Also humans are inevitably related to science and have an innate curiosity for the driving forces behind science, as it is one of the highest levels of human intellectual activity.

Our vision and goals, put simply, exactly refer to the vision of "Science"

Our goals are to explore the following questions:

What are materials?
What is space?
What is life?

Starting from such simple questions that humans have been asking since the dawn of civilization, our challenge is to unveil various enigmas of nature from both perspectives of experimental research and theoretical speculation, and to contribute to establishing a culture of natural science in our country and throughout the world. We hope that striving towards this challenge will bring about the development of flexible ideas, both a new and wide range of scientific applications to society, and build a shared intellectual heritage for all humans.

In this regard, we offer advanced professional education of sciences with the aim of cultivating young researchers who will lead the cutting edge research of sciences into the next generation, and professionals who will contribute to society in their relevant field of natural science without being limited by existing concepts but with unrestricted ideas, thoughts, and contemplation as well as creative, experimental and theoretical methodologies. Additionally, we will establish ourselves as the center of professional education of sciences in Western Japan by cooperating with Faculty/Graduate School of Mathematics, the Department of Informatics in the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, and the Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences.

Composition of the Departments

The Graduate School and the Graduate Faculty System

Kyushu University has instituted a Graduate School, and a Graduate Faculty system, which is designed to separate the former Graduate School into, what is called "the Faculty" as the research body, and what is called "the Graduate School" as the educational body. The faculty members belong to "the Faculty", and promote their own research activities, and are also flexible in that they offer further assistance and educational opportunities to graduate students who belong to "the Graduate School".

We will explain the composition of each body and its interaction within the educational system.

Composition of the Graduate School and the Faculty of Science

The Faculty of Science, that is, the research body of the Graduate School is comprised of four departments. The faculty members belong to the faculty working on their researches as well as teaching in both Graduate Schools and Undergraduate Schools.

The faculty members in the field of mathematics currently belong to the Faculty of Mathematics.

Composition of the School of Science

The School of Science, within the educational body of Kyushu University, contains the following five departments. Additionally, the Department of Physics is divided into two courses.

The faculty members of sciences in each department and members from relevant faculties conduct educational activities for respective departments. The flowchart as shown below shows the relationship of the education system within the Faculty and the School of Science.

Composition of the Graduate School of Science

"The Graduate School of Science", the education body, is organized into the following three departments. There is no department of mathematics in the Graduate School of Science. Consequently, students in the Department of Mathematics in the School of Science will attend the Graduate School of Mathematics.

The faculty members of sciences in each department and members from relevant faculties conduct educational activities for respective departments. In addition, the faculty members are responsible for teaching courses in the other Graduate Schools as well. The flowchart as shown below shows the relationship of the education system within the Faculty and the Graduate School of Science.

History

The Faculty of Science was established in April 1939 and initially consisted of the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Geology. Two more departments were subsequently added: Mathematics in 1942 and Biology in 1949. In 1990, the Department of Geology and the geophysics laboratories of the Department of Physics were reorganized and expanded to become the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. In 1994, staff members of the Department of Mathematics moved into the newly created Faculty of Mathematics, although they continue to be responsible for providing instruction in undergraduate courses at the School of Science. In April 2008, the Graduate School of Science was reorganized into three departments: the Department of Physics, the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Postgraduate education in Biology was also transferred to the Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences.

There are now about 150 faculty members, including professors, associate professors, lecturers and assistant professors. The total number of undergraduate students is over 1,200. There are also about 400 postgraduate students, 300 at Master's level, and about 100 engaged in research for their D.Sc. degrees.