4 minute read
EXPLORING METALS PLASTICITY IN GHENT AND TOKYO
FACULTY WORLDWIDE
Following his postdoc in Tokyo, Professor Sam Coppieters has been commuting up and down between KU Leuven-Ghent and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology for the past decade. This year, he is officially appointed as an associate professor at the Global Institute for Research of TUAT and combines teaching and research on both locations.
Professor Coppieters is an academic staff member of the Metal Performance Innovation Lab at KU Leuven-Ghent. The research activities of this lab are aimed at gaining a better understanding of the performance of metallic materials in industrial application using innovative techniques. In this lab Sam Coppieters’ team concentrates on plastic behaviour of metallic materials and its joints.
“Light weight metals and their plasticity is my specialization”, explains Sam Coppieters. “In this domain I found ample interesting expertise at TUAT.”
“When I plan a stay in Tokyo, I send research samples a month before and then I can start experiments as soon as I arrive, together with a team of Japanese master and doctoral students in the laboratory.”
“Different from the European practice is that Japanese master students are effectively part of the laboratory activities. They integrate into the research group and even regularly publish papers during their master studies. This is not surprising, given the fact that the engineering study in Japan is 6 years in duration (4 years undergraduate and 2 years of graduate programmes).”
Why the choice for TUAT and Japan?
“After finishing my PhD in 2012 - at KU Leuven, I applied for a JSPS post-doctoral fellowship in Japan. My application was successful, and it was through the guidance of Prof. Van Bael that I was introduced to Prof. Kuwabara, who served as my host professor at TUAT. The postdoc position introduced me to Japanese research and universities, and the fascination has never disappeared since.”
What is your research focused on?
“My postdoc supervisor, professor Kuwabara, is an expert in plasticity of metals. A state-of-the-art research laboratory was set up by him over the years, attracting American and European researchers. The experiments are conducted to understand the behaviour of metals, and to create material models, used to sim- ulate the behavior of metals in specific circumstances, when being shaped into products.”
“My research is mainly focused on how to reduce the experimental test campaigns for calibration (and the related costs) to a more condense level. The research that I recently performed in Japan focuses mostly on a comparison between my results and professor Kuwabara’s.”
“A direct line runs from the research conducted at TUAT to the type of research activities in materials science in our Faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven-Ghent. In our faculty and at TUAT, research has a strong link with industrial applications.”
After years of collaboration in Japan, you can probably appreciate the intercultural specificities.
“It took some time to gain the confidence of the colleagues and students in the university, but once this happened, the collaboration ran perfectly. For example: the first 6 months, TUAT students did not dare to enter my office but now I really feel integrated into the research and teaching activities.”
“In Japan there is a general respect for hierarchy and for older more experienced people in general, which leads many Europeans to see Japanese universities as very hierarchical. I have never experienced this; I was welcomed by my Japanese colleagues from the start. Nevertheless, I am not afraid to say that even after all these years, I understand maybe 5% of the way the Japanese society works.”
What will the future bring?
“Professor Kuwabara is approaching retirement from TUAT, but my intention is to continue the engagement at TUAT, as well as continuing the activities in his laboratory. Throughout the years, I also established a good relationship with Prof. Yamanaka (TUAT), so it seems the future collaboration with Japan is ensured !.”
Hilde Lauwereys
