2022年3月10日（木）、北海道大学物質科学フロンティアを開拓するAmbitiousリーダー育成プログラム（以下、ALP）の修了式が、理学部大会議室にて執り行われました。ALPとは物質科学を中心に分野横断的に学び、社会人として高い能力を養い、学位取得後には学術・研究機関だけではなく民間企業など社会の広い分野で国際的に活躍する人材を育成するための教育プログラムで、特に、数理科学と科学技術コミュニケーション教育に力を入れています。2020年3月に文部科学省の補助金事業としての期間は終了しましたが、北大の事業として継続して活動しています。プログラム責任者の山口淳二 理事・副学長より修了証が手渡され、祝辞が送られました。また、プログラムコーディネーターの石森浩一郎理学研究院教授（副学長）が挨拶を述べました。
Executive Director Vice President by Junji Yamaguchi
Congratulations to all of you on completing this course. As the representative of this program, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations. Two years have passed since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Hokkaido. As a university, we have taken measures to prevent infection and continue research at the same time. In particular, it must have been difficult to acquire international practical skills because direct exchanges with foreign countries were greatly restricted. However, it was possible because it was a corona misfortune. In particular, online conferences and research meetings are now a daily occurrence, and it is now possible to interact with researchers in Japan and overseas without feeling the physical distance. Research activities are about to change dramatically as DX progresses further. Various curricula and events have been moved online at ALP, and I have heard that they have been implemented almost as effectively as face-to-face, and in some cases more effectively. And, just like past graduates, they have acquired the overwhelming expertise, perspective, frontier pioneering ability, introspective intelligence, and international practical ability that ALP aims for.
Amidst such a drastic change in the surrounding environment, the fact that you were able to achieve your goals by not only responding to the changes, but also using them in reverse, must have given you a great deal of confidence. The current corona crisis will eventually come to an end, but it is not surprising that a second or third pandemic could occur at any time. In a situation where society has no choice but to change drastically, instead of focusing on countermeasures from beginning to end, it is global to find new possibilities and move forward with the idea of "turning misfortune into good fortune." You are the leaders. I sincerely hope that each of you will continue to play an active role in your respective fields.
Koichiro Ishimori Coordinator's Greeting: About the meaning of studying a field that is far from the path you want to pursue
On behalf of the faculty and staff of the program, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the graduates.
As a starting point for everyone, I would like to introduce an episode of Professor Kenichi Fukui, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981 for the first time in Asia. Fukui was good at mathematics when he was in high school, but he didn't like chemistry. However, before entering university, Professor Genitsu Kita, who was a relative of mine, advised me to study chemistry if I liked mathematics. At that time, it was common knowledge that people who were not good at mathematics studied chemistry at university.
Currently, chemistry and mathematics overlap considerably, and quantum chemistry requires knowledge of mathematics. However, it is a prewar story around 1930. Professor Fukui seemed to think that mathematics was a rigorous, simple, and beautiful subject, while chemistry was a complex and mysterious subject. To put it in extreme terms, I recognized that it was an academic field that went in the opposite direction. Hearing Kita-sensei's words, Fukui-sensei felt something sharp and began to study chemistry earnestly. The results led to an idea called "frontier electron theory" that could not have been born without knowledge of mathematics. And won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
I would like to introduce another story by Mr. Fukui. He entered the Faculty of School of Engineering, Kyoto University. Since I'm in the School of Engineering, I was naturally thinking of studying applications, but Professor Kita once again told me to study the basics, not the applications. So I learned the basics of physics, such as "quantum mechanics," which people who specialize in chemistry don't study.
After graduating from university, I entered graduate school at Kyoto University. Around the time the Pacific War began, Professor Fukui was seconded to a military research institute while still enrolled in graduate school, and was ordered to research airplane fuel. Perhaps they were given unreasonable demands such as "make petroleum from trees"... At that time, Professor Fukui felt that blind experiments were no good and that he needed to understand things logically. In other words, if you don't do the ′′ foundation ′′ you can't move forward. Then they figured out how to make an efficient fuel.
Professor Fukui, who became a teacher, told his students, “Study fields that are far from the path you want to pursue. I can do a proper job," he said. ALP's interdisciplinary lab visits and various events were also completely different experiences from your own research, but they should have helped broaden your worldview.
Corona may converge ahead. However, unexpected challenges arise one after another, albeit to varying degrees, and the ability to flexibly deal with them is called into question. You have cultivated such abilities in about five years. By all means, please use the power cultivated at ALP to open up the future.