- IMR - TOHOKU UNIVERSITY | Research Activities

　　The Institute is the oldest one among five research institutes of Tohoku University. It was started 90 years ago by the late Professor Kotaro Honda for research on steels. Since then the institute continued to develop, and the research field had been extended to other metals, alloys and related compounds. In 1987, the institute was reorganized to the present form of a national collaborative research institute belonging to Tohoku University, and developed to be a Center of Excellence (COE) for both basic and applied research for metals as well as for a wider range of related materials. The name of the Institute was therefore changed to the current one, "Institute for Materials Research".
　　New materials are developed rapidly together with the progress of science, which has become the keystone of civilization of the 20th century and brought about much convenience to the life of human beings. It should be noted that our institute has made a great contribution to the development of the materials science area. For example, the early research of the physical metallurgy of the iron carbon alloys led to the innovation of technology for making high quality steels that contributed greatly to the development of the steel industry of Japan.