Fourth International Symposium on Ceramics Nanotune Technology (ISCeNT-4) was held at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) from March 2nd to March 4th. The Institute of Ceramics Research and Education of NITech facilitates education and research activities in collaboration with European educational and research institutions, including Imperial College London (ICL), Britain, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)- Institut Européen des Membranes (IEM), France, and École Nationale Supérieure de Céramique Industrielle (ENSCI)/ Université de Limoges (uniLim), France. As a part of the collaborative activity, an international symposium is held every March. This symposium is the fourth time.
On the first day of the symposium, the total of 16 students who studied at these European research institutions, mentioned above, presented their research. Active discussions occurred among participants. The second day started from two keynote lecturers, Prof. William Lee from ICL and Prof. Philippe Miele from CNRS-IEM. In both the second and the third days, the total of 21 presentations focused on the latest ceramics' research. Prof. Lee introduced the latest trend of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTC), while Prof. Miele presented Polymer-Derived Non-oxide Ceramics.
At the Banquet after the second day of the symposium, each representative from major collaborative universities gave encouraging words concerning strengthening of partnerships and enhancement of ceramics research and education. Moreover, the review committee, comprised of keynote and invited lecturers, judged student presentations conducted on the first day and awarded prizes for the best speakers to the following three students:

・Yuhei SHIMOKAWA, "Chemical formation of alumina nitride from metal-organic precursors synthesized by reacting aluminum tri-chloride with bis(trimethylsilyl)carbodiimide"

・Yuki FUJITA, "Synthesis of biodegradable branched polymer methylmethacrylate and 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate"

・Kohei MATSUZAKI, "Pentafluorophenylation and pentafluorosulfanylarylation using diaryliodonium salts"

On March 3rd, Prof. Philippe Miele and Dr. Samuel Bernard made a courtesy call on President Ukai. Prof. Milele and Dr. Bernard are appointed to the Foreign Faculty Member of the NITech Academic Unit Cooperation Program this year. They received the appointments from President Ukai.

Dr. Mouline Zineb from CNRS-IEM, who has been appointed to the Foreign Researcher of the same program in NITech, and Mr. Anthony Ballestero from CNRS-IEM, the Foreign Researcher, were present at the meeting and reported their current research in NITech.