People :
Winner of the Special Prize in the 20th High-technology Contest
Mr. Junya Yamadera

Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1984. Graduated from Ueda High School and the School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University. At present, he is in his first year of the MSc program at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University (major: applied chemistry). He belongs to the laboratory of Professors Kikuchi, Matsukata, and Sekine. In the 20th High-technology Contest - “Explore the Originality” - he won the Special Prize. His hobbies are reading and traveling.

“Biogas”, a fuel produced from waste, has recently been attracting increasing attention as an alternative source of energy. However, the process of improving the quality of waste remains a complicated one, and this is the chief drawback of “biogas”. By making use of a process involving electrical discharge, Junya Yamadera has made it easier to synthesize biogas from waste. He says, “My professor by chance told me there would be a competition and so I submitted my theory. One day, he suddenly told me I had got a prize. I was amazed by the news.”

Yamadara was the youngest among the winners in the competition. He got the Special Prize by achieving results with a fresh new idea, but he is just a young guy with a charming shy smile. Since starting his research, he has frequently stayed at the laboratory day and night in order to carry out repeated experiments to prove his theory. “Members of my research team and my professor gave me a lot of advice. Sometimes we spent time on small talk rather than research, and that made me feel I was not a lonely researcher, but someone working together with others in the laboratory.” However, for Yamadera, his good friends in the laboratory are at the same time his competitive rivals. “While the goal of our research team is the same and teamwork should be important, everyone competes to advance our theory. Each one of us wants to be the biggest contributor to the direction of our research. I have one colleague who is in the same year as me, and if he stayed in the laboratory, so did I. If I stayed there, so did he. Thus I always ended up staying in the laboratory as long as he stayed. Silly, isn't it?” he smiles.

When he isn't in the laboratory, he loves to play sports or to read books in a café. His interests branch out in many directions. In addition to chemistry, he also likes architecture very much, so when he goes out he is always observing unusual buildings or elegant houses he is fond of. “You cannot see what or how they really are just by looking at them from the outside. By experiencing various things, I want to extend my interests and broaden my point of view.” He says this, but he doesn't seem like someone in a hurry. That is because he always sets himself a clear goal whenever he does anything. “I want to explore whatever I feel is interesting and to take on the challenge of doing something unfamiliar. I'm not the type of person to waste time by being lazy. I want to live with a clear goal in front of me.” In both his research and his lifestyle, he seems to be adopting an attitude of trial and error. It will be fun to see just what kind of discoveries he makes in the future.