International Research, and English, and Demons, Oh my! A Conversation with Professor Ryosuke Yoshii

I: You’ve worked at many different universities in Japan. But you also worked at a University in France. Maybe everybody asks you about that experience, but how was your overall experience in France?

Prof. Yoshii: Before I went to France, I’d already been to some countries like Italy, or Netherlands, and France also, Austria, Belgium, and Israel, the USA, and China, Korea…But my experience living in France was completely different when compared with the experience when I went there for conferences or such things. I was really excited but at the same time kind of stressed. All the process goes really slow in France, for instance when I got a residence card or something it took 1 month I think. When I opened a bank account it took maybe like 3 weeks or 4 weeks. But apart from that everything is fresh for me because all the systems are different in Japan. It’s difficult to find the similarity, but actually there might be, but I cannot say which is the same with Japan. But yeah entirely it’s really exciting. 

I: Okay, very good! So you don’t have any really bad memories from France? 

Prof. Yoshii: No. Not at all. 

I: I’m really glad to hear that, and I think it’s especially good for some of our Japanese students and researchers to hear because I think a lot of them are a little bit scared to go overseas. 

Prof. Yoshii: Actually I want to add one point that is here in Japan… Maybe this place is not like that but usually in University we do research and eat some lunch individually, and discussion is only with his or her supervisor. That’s Japanese style. But in France, almost all people get together and eat some lunch or drink coffee or small chat. That really accelerates collaboration, so that’s a very good experience for Japanese students. For students from other countries, I think this is common. But especially for Japanese students, I really recommend going somewhere for at least 3 months or 4 months.

I: Many students have some anxiety about their language ability and their ability to communicate with people from other countries, especially in English. So, for you, did you ever feel uncertain about your English ability, or have you always been confident? 

Prof. Yoshii: I don’t know, actually, the first time I started to make some conversation with a foreigner I was really embarrassed. I think it’s common in Japanese people that we hate or we have some fear about silence. So, after I learned, “let me see”, or, “you know”, or, “I mean”, it really helps me. So actually, that’s kind of worth it. It’s really important for Japanese people I think. That’s not important for the conversation, but for our feelings I think it’s really important. So, I strongly recommend people to learn such kinds of words.

I: I wanted to ask about your research, so I did some of my own research to see what kind of things you research, and I can’t understand anything. So currently for you in your research, the most exciting thing about your research; what is it and how would you explain it to me? 

Prof. Yoshii: Now, or I think from the time I was an undergrad, my interest has always been quantum mechanics, and quantum physics. Actually, that describes the behavior of electrons or atoms or some crystals in a small world. Strange things always happen there, right? Even if you put some electron in a box, and after a few minutes, if you look inside the box, you can’t predict where it is. That is only described by a probability distribution. When I learned that theory, I thought that the theory was incomplete. But in the end, all the experimental data fits that theory and there is no contradiction so far. So, I was really surprised and I am still wondering why it works so well. Now I’m investigating when a lot of particles get together, what kind of phenomena happen, or from these strange behaviors, what can we get? Is there any possibility to generalize a theory or find a difference, like that stuff. Basically, my interest is in quantum mechanics. It’s difficult to explain more but I am interested in collective mode or such strange particles and how we can distinguish quantum theory from classical theory. My current interest is in that area. 

I: I did have one question about something in your research that I wanted to know so bad. It said you were creating a demon? So I know a demon isn’t a “demon”… but what is a demon? 

Prof. Yoshii: If you have water and boiled water and you mix them it becomes water with a moderate temperature. But the opposite phenomenon never happens, right? If you have some water with a moderate temperature, it does not divide into boiled water and cool water. But in principle it can happen. In order to do that, you need to hire a demon. He can, if some high energy particle comes, allow it to go to the left of the room and if a slow particle comes from the right, he doesn’t allow that. He prevents it from getting into the left room, and the same things happen for the right room. If a slow particle comes from the left, he allows it to go to the right room, but if a high energy particle comes from the left, he refuses to let it into the room. So, the left room has a high temperature, or high energy, but in the right room there are low energy particles, then it means cool water and hot water are separated. This creature is called a “demon”, because he has a super power. He instantaneously finds the energy of the particle and then decides if he permits it or not. Actually, we don’t believe this kind of being exists, of course, but basically, we can make such a demon, but not perfectly. We can mimic the demon. What we are doing now is if we change some permissions in a good way, you can get some energy from the system. That’s called a “demon”.

I: It sounds like you do a lot of fundamental science. Do you have any thoughts about the application of your research? 

Prof. Yoshii: Actually, I want to do some work for application. I presented my work on Casimir force for instance, yesterday. That force means that if you prepare two plates, it automatically has an attractive force or interaction, so it goes closer. If you can change the sign of the force, it goes in the opposite direction, so it means you can make some kind of oscillator. There is a possibility that we can make some sort of Casimir oscillator or combined with things such as the work on demons, maybe we can get some energy from this movement and motion. I’m wondering if it is possible or not, but so far, I’m still working on that. 

I: Before we finish the interview, do you have any words of encouragement or any thoughts for the researchers and students at our institution?

Prof. Yoshii: I have only one word: “Please enjoy the research”, that’s it. If you feel some stress or bad feeling, maybe you should quit that research. I think everyone should enjoy their research and in all the research areas there are some fascinating things, so I think everyone can find something that they enjoy. So, please enjoy. 

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And we hope everybody affiliated with WPI-SKCM2 can enjoy their research, just as Dr. Yoshii said. And we hope that some of our aspiring researchers from Japan can gain the confidence to face down international research, English communication, and perhaps even demons, without fear!