15 Natural Sciences Master's Degree Programs in Japan

The Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences was established at the same time as the merger of Keio University and Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy in 2008. The research and educational activities of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences are not limited to the areas of fundamental pharmaceutical sciences, but also extends to applied pharmaceutical disciplines, such as drug delivery and drug targeting, clinical pharmaceutics, clinical pathophysiology, clinical drug evaluation, drug informatics, evidence-based medicine, and regulatory sciences. This school is open for graduates from departments/schools of pharmaceutical sciences (4-year program) and those who have received education in equivalent level at other departments/schools.

What is matter? Why does matter display a wide range of properties and functions? How was the Universe created? The research groups in the Department of Physics tackle such fundamental questions in the natural sciences head-on.

Biomedical Sciences was founded as a new academic field that links biosciences such as genomics and neurology with the development of cutting-edge medical technology related to organ regeneration and artificial organs. This field has made rapid developments and becoming increasingly vital.

Students in this department aim to acquire specialized learning in pharmaceutical sciences and research abilities, focusing on basic pharmaceutical sciences. The curriculum is composed of eight lectures on specialized topics, seminars, and specialized experiments. Students take the required credits, work on their own research topic under the guidance of their academic advisor, and write a master's thesis.

As science and technology become ever more sophisticated, and advances in the field take place at an ever-accelerating rate, so research and education in the sciences in graduate schools to generate researchers and highly skilled professionals, especially in Master's programs, become ever more necessary. This is reflected in the current employment market, where more companies are becoming increasingly aggressive in efforts to attract students to post-graduate programs. Some have even made a Master's degree a requirement for employment.

This program trains engineers and researchers to handle the challenges of interdisciplinary fields that are even more advanced than the usually specialized fields so that they can use their grounding in chemistry to provide solutions related to these vital issues.

This graduate school was established as a new graduate school in April 2016 by progressively integrating and expanding the Department of Functional Polymer Engineering and the Department of Organic Device Engineering of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering. It consists of one major, the Department of Organic Material Systems, and strives for consistency of education in cooperation with the education system of the Department of Polymer and Organic Material Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. Amid the diversification of manufacturing and the sophistication of technology, we aim to improve the planning ability of new functional materials required of leaders who can win standardization at the world level, and the communication ability through participation in international conferences, etc., globally. We are conducting education and research on human resource development aimed at leaders. We request highly specialized professionals who can lead the world by making the most of the environment where we can get close to the cutting edge of the organic material system field.

Our laboratory investigates regulatory mechanisms of immune-cell trafficking (adhesion and migration). Adhesion molecules integrins play important roles in lymphocyte homing to peripheral lymphoid organs and leukocyte migration through the inflamed endothelium, and adhesive interactions to antigen-presenting cells. We identified small GTPase Rap1 as a crucial regulator of integrin-dependent cell attachment and migration during these processes. We further clarified the Rap1 signaling pathway to integrins, which abnormal regulation led to a breakdown of self-tolerance due to impaired thymocyte selections and regulatory T cells development and functions. Combined with mice models of immune diseases, we are developing various tissue imaging methods and pursuing therapeutic strategies of intractable immune diseases by controlling immune cell adhesion.

The Nuclear System Safety Engineering Course curriculum is designed to equip human resources with the motivation and leadership skills required to ensure nuclear safety by system safety engineering. Based on the diverse disciplines, theoretical and practical studies on nuclear safety are made to enhance the system safety approach. Practical courses are also offered to students to help develop skills to communicate with non-experts and ordinary citizens.

Electrons, when confined in a nanometer-sized space (1 nanometer = 10-9 m), remarkably begin to behave like waves. For example, an organic molecule can be considered as a quantum state in which electrons are confined in an nm space consisting of atoms connected together. Semiconductor nanoparticles show colors different from those of bulk solids due to this quantum size effect. The Quantum Materials Science Laboratory studies molecules, crystals, nanoparticles, and ultrathin films of both organic and inorganic materials, utilizes various optics-based experimental approaches to clarify material properties from the viewpoint of quantum physics, and aims to create new functional materials that will be used in optical information-communication or environment-conscious devices in the future.

Looking at our clothing, food, and shelter, it is clear that humankind’s prosperity in the 20th century was brought about by progress in chemistry. Naturally, chemistry will continue to be the key to prosperity in the 21st century.

The oceans play an important role in global environmental change, therefore, in order to understand and predict such change, the maintenance of global-scale observation systems is needed. Also, while considering the preservation of the entire ecosystem and prevention of environmental pollution, and in order to also ensure the continuous usage of marine resources, the investigation of the oceans' biotic resources is indispensable. In this pioneering marine field, it is imperative to train and secure human resources that can actively play an international role in both science and technology.

The TAC-MI program is a seamless educational program provided throughout graduate learning. It aims to empower students to become multitalented individuals capable of promoting creative, interdisciplinary research in materials science and informatics. The program, in collaboration with partners from industry and the National Institute for Materials Science, will enable students to connect information and materials* by utilizing information science and multifaceted thinking, as well as by taking a broad perspective. Students will have the potential to become informatics experts, inventors of original materials, and creators of new industries. We expect our students to take a leading role in the ‘complex space’ of a transdisciplinary framework as multitalented individuals that includes materials science, information science, and services to society, pursuing a path toward sustainability. * In this context, “materials” refers not only to material goods and chemical compounds but also to devices and processes. The program empowers students to think from a broad perspective free from a traditional classification of materials, devices/processes, and social services as they can easily cross the boundaries of “materials science” and “informatics”. These individuals not only create new products and services but are passionate about contributing to a sustainable society.

The purpose of mathematics education in universities is to allow students to learn the basic theories of modern mathematics, thereby acquiring wide knowledge, and at the same time to train persons equipped with a highly developed logicality and flexible mathematical reasoning abilities who can play an active role in various fields in society.

This division aims to nurture the researchers who have advanced knowledge and research competency through the studies on the structure and dynamics of the Earth, planets, and universe in GRC and RCSCE. The division consists of four terrains of high-pressure mineralogy, the theory of Earth and planetary materials, galaxy evolution, and X-ray astrophysics.