This INTPART partnership project will strengthen the research and education collaboration of UiO with the University of Tokyo (Japan), RIKEN (Japan) and the University of Konan (Japan). The main objective is to do excellent research and involve students in active research projects. The project will help increase master and PhD student participation in cutting edge research, including experiments to study exotic nuclei at RIKEN, Japan, and complementary experiments at Spring-8 facility, New-SUBARU, Japan, and at the Oslo Cyclotron, Norway. Collaboration meetings, scientific workshops and summer schools will be organized. Another objective is to make student exchange on all levels easier, by getting good agreements established between the Universities and pre-approved bachelor course packages. A third objective is to develop collaboration on education and develop intensive courses for master students (+PhD) which will give credits at all 3 universities.
The project has lead to an effortless exchange of academic staff between Norway and Japan and has increased the cooperation between UiO and the partner institutions. Prof. H. Utsunomiya (Konan University) visited UiO for two weeks in March 2019 to work with our postdoc G. Tveten. Prof. T. Otsuka and post-doc Y. Tsunoda (RIKEN) visited UiO for one week in August 2019 to work on analyzing RIKEN data.
The project has supported four participants to the bi-annual Oslo Workshop on Nuclear Level Densities and Gamma-Strength Functions 2019: H. Utsonomiya (Konan), student T. Ari-izumi (Konan), As. Prof. N. Shumizu (Tokyo), and As. Prof. A. Tamii (Osaka). T. Ari-izumi also attended the following Oslo summer school. Four students from Japan were also supported to participate in the summer school organized in South Africa in November 2019 (collaboration with the INTPART project with South Africa and USA). During October-December in 2019 the students M. Bjerke, F. R. Shajib, L. G. Pedersen, W. Paulsen, and post-doc F. L. Bello-Garrote and T. K. Eriksen from UiO participated in experiments at the New-SUBARU facility in Japan. In connection to this, collaboration meetings between representatives from UiO, RIKEN, and Tokyo were also held. Another collaboration meeting was held during the "Vth Workshop on Nuclear Structure" in Bormio, Italy in February 2020.
COVID-19 severely slowed down collaboration with Japan, as the possibility of carrying out summer schools and experiments was not feasible without international travel and participation. Collaboration meetings have been held virtually instead. Several summer schools were planned in both 2020 and 2021, in Japan and Oslo, but all of these have been postponed. We are planning to organize two schools in 2022 instead. In May of 2022, in connection to the international workshop in Oslo, we will also have an INTPART collaboration meeting. Students from the INTPART collaboration will be encouraged and financially supported to give a talk at this conference.
Due to the lack of physical summer schools, a simplified, partly digital version of a previous successful school is currently being developed during the autumn of 2021. Though it is limited to more local collaborations between students, international researchers from Japan will have lectures, digitally by As. Prof. N. Shumizu (Tokyo) in 2021, and in-person by Prof. T. Otsuka in early 2022. These will be recorded and are being made into study packages available for students.
A digital alternative is not as good as in-person summer schools since these are based on active learning and participation instead of passively listening to lectures, making it difficult to implement in a digital format. Some of the most important activities are connecting the students both socially, academically and with researchers from other countries, cultures, and different scientific groups. The differences in the time zones between Norway and Japan also contribute to the difficulties of implementing a digital teaching program.
Despite the lack of travel possibilities, some collaboration has still taken place digitally. As. Prof. N. Shumizu (Tokyo) is currently co-supervisor of J. Dahl, a master student in Oslo, with weekly meetings and close collaboration. J. Dahl was supposed to spend the fall semester of 2021 in Japan, which has been postponed to 2022. Prof. T. Otsuka was supposed to visit Oslo to further collaborate with our students and researchers in August of 2021, which is also postponed. In addition, master student S. Bhandari from Oslo recently finished his master thesis on data from RIKEN as a result of the scientific collaboration between our institutions.
Collaborations are still actively ongoing, with two scientific papers submitted in 2021, as well as new proposals for experiments at RIKEN.
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The research project addresses some of the key questions of modern nuclear physics: How does the nuclear structure change with temperature? How do nuclear shapes and the shell structure evolve across the nuclear chart toward more exotic nuclei? Providing experimental data related to these questions is essential to benchmark and improve theoretical nuclear structure models. It can furthermore have an impact on nuclear astrophysics, helping to understand how heavy elements are made in the universe, and improve our understanding of reactions occurring in nuclear reactors. It includes experiments to study exotic nuclei at RIKEN, Japan, and complementary experiments at Springer 8, Japan and the Oslo Cyclotron.
The INPART project aims to strengthen collaboration with RIKEN, University of Tokyo and Konan University. Both scientifically and for education. This project also aims to increase master and PhD student participation in cutting edge research, by supporting their travel to the experiments at RIKEN, Japan, Springer8, Japan and at the Oslo Cyclotron, Norway.
We will also organize collaboration meetings, scientific workshops and intensive courses. Make student exchange at all levels easier, by getting good agreements in place between the Universities and pre-approved bachelor course packages.
We will develop and teach intensive courses for master (and PhD) students which will give credits at all 3 universities.
The project is divided in 3 work packages focused on Research, education and student exchange.
