On Friday, November 25, we participated in a tour hosted by the Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers Hokkaido District Project Promotion Committee, and went to the "Ishikariwan Shinko Power Station / LNG Terminal."

Professor Katsunori Nagano has received 2016 "Northern Region Energy-Saving and New Energy Award" (Hokkaido Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry Director-General's Award for Excellent Energy-Saving and New Energy Businesses).

Date & Time: December 1, 2016
Venue: Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo
Awarded by: Hokkaido Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
Award Name: FY2016 Hokkaido Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry Director-General's Award for Excellent Energy-Saving and New Energy Businesses (Northern Region Energy-Saving and New Energy Award)
Research Title: "Community-Based Facility Aiming for a Net-Zero Energy Building in a Cold Climate: Rusutsu Children's Center"

A delegation of six members-Professor Nagano, Associate Professor Katsura, Assistant Professor Jiang, Mr. Yang (PhD student), Mr. Ijima (Master's student), and Ms. Komaki (Master's student)-attended IAQVEC 2016 held in South Korea from October 23 to 26, where they presented their research findings.

■Evaluation of energy consumption and indoor air quality with airborne microbes of underground shopping mall in Sapporo,Japan/ Yoonkyung Kang, Nagano Katsunori
■Odor Transfer characteristic of an air to air type total heat recovery element and a desiccant rotor for the air conditioning unit/ Ayumi Komaki, Katsunori Nagano, Makoto Nakamura, Junya Togawa, Chiemi Aoki, Yuki Nabeshima
■Analysis of the energy consumption and indoor air quality of children care center in cold region/ Takuya Ijima, Katsunori Nagano, Takao Katsura, Makoto Nakamura
■Development of Slim and Translucent Vacuum Insulation Panels to Contribution Retrofitting Insulation for Existing Buildings/ Takao Katsura, Zhang Yang, Tomoaki Murakami, Makoto Nakamura, Katsunori Nagano

Professor Nagano, Associate Professor Katsura, and Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Sakata attended the FY2016 NEDO Project Results Briefing Session. They delivered an oral presentation and a poster presentation on the interim results of their ongoing project, "Development of Renewable Thermal Energy Technologies."

Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Sakata and Mr. Junki Hashimoto delivered oral presentations on potential maps in the Ground Source Heat Section at the 2016 Autumn Meeting of the Japanese Association of Groundwater Hydrology held in Nagasaki.

Dr. Kiyoshi Ochifuji, Professor Emeritus of Hokkaido University, was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in May 2016, and a celebratory event was held on September 30, 2016, to commemorate the conferment of this decoration.

Three international students from China joined our laboratory this October.
From left to right: Jingyi Ke (exchange student), Yuzhi Feng (research student), Peng He (research student).
A warm welcome to our laboratory!

Friday, September 30 marked the final working day for Dr. Hongzhi Liu, who served as a Postdoctoral Researcher. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to her for her dedication over the past five and a half years, since she first joined our laboratory's doctoral program in April 2010. Thank you very much for everything!

Mr. Bastien has successfully completed his three-month internship training. Thank you for your hard work over the past three months! To wrap up his time with us, we took a group photo together surrounding Bastien.

The Master's Degree Conferral Ceremony was held on Monday, September 26, and Ms. Tazia Rahman from our laboratory attended the ceremony. Congratulations, Rahman, and thank you so much for your hard work over the past two years!