@AFC_cristal
I am currently a second year PhD candidate working on the subject "Trirutiles as new potential Multiferroics: Exploring Manganese Tellurates" at the Laboratoire de Cristallographie et Sciences des Matériaux (CRISMAT). This PhD is a partnership between Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) and the CRISMAT. The objective of my thesis is to establish in Manganese Tellurates oxide systems the link between magnetic and Te/Mn orderings and to discover new potential multiferroics materials.
IUCr2017 in Hyderabad was my first international conference as an oral presenter. I had my presentation at the MS-034 micro-symposium (Synthesis and properties of multi ferroics and multi-functional materials). It goes without saying that I felt nervous; however, the pleasure of presenting and sharing a part of my results to researchers from all over the world was an irreplaceable feeling. At the end of my presentation, I was very pleased to receive a few interesting questions and positive feedback.
Another important mission in IUCr2017 for me was Dragon's Den, a competition whose purpose is to encourage young researchers in their projects. Authors of selected proposals presented and defended their proposals in front of the Dragons (Juries). I challenged this competition for a new project titled "Investigation of new tellurates as potential multiferroics material: A2TeO6", which is a derivative research from my thesis. It was not easy to summarize the validity of project in a 2 minutes presentation, however I have enjoyed my defense. The Dragons selected me finally as one of the winners (see the photo at the right). I am delighted to be able to have more experience and experiments using this funding soon.
During the conference, a huge number of micro symposium was organized, including the one that are close to my interest, i.e. solid state chemistry and physics, crystal and magnetic structure determination and large scale facilities. For eight days, it was very fruitful not only because I was inspired a lot by others researches but also because I could discuss and meet with a lot of researchers and students from different countries.
Thanks to this opportunity it was the first time for me to visit India. India is the country where has an entirely different cultural background from either Europe or Japan. I am glad having had this unique experience there. Hyderabad is recently getting more famous as IT city, and is rapidly developing during a few last decades. I was overwhelmed by the energy of the people living there. I could manage having some time to explore this city, and I saw not only its face as a modern IT city but also its other face as a historical vestige of beautiful and flourished old kingdom.
IUCr2017 has become an unforgettable experience for both for my research and my personal life. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, laboratories and the AFC for giving me this magnificent opportunity.
Nami Matsubara (september 2017)