The , or AIST, is a Japanese research facility headquartered in Tokyo, and most of the workforce is located in

Tsukuba Science City is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...

, Ibaraki, and in several cities throughout Japan. The institute is managed to integrate scientific and engineering knowledge to address socio-economic needs. It became a newly designed legal body of

Independent Administrative Institution An Incorporated Administrative Agency (独立行政法人, ''Dokuritsu gyōsei hōjin'' or ''Dokugyo'' in abbreviation) is a type of legal corporation formulated by the Government of Japan under the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrat ...

in 2001, remaining under the

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The or METI, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic activities ...

History

In its present form AIST was established in 2001. However, its predecessor institutes have been operating since 1882. In 2015, it is running more than 40 researching institutes and several branches over Japan including International Metrology Cooperation Office.

Three missions of AIST

# Advanced Research by exploring broad spectra of research fields and integrating multidisciplinary subjects to promote innovation in versatile fields that strengthen the competitiveness of Japanese industries in the world market and create new industries. # Interdisciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Research that enables planning long-range governmental policies by exploiting the current and future needs of society. # Basic Research that maintains and strengthens competitiveness of national science and technology by developing and maintaining high standards of scientific and engineering research under the sole responsibility of AIST.

Type-I and Type-II basic research

The institute attempts to use and integrate scientific and engineering knowledge that is fragmented into various disciplines to address versatile and highly complex socio-economic needs that change rapidly with time. AIST defines such research as Type-II Basic Research, which integrates multiple disciplines and creates methods for the use of integrated knowledge; traditional basic research is defined as Type-I Basic Research, which is the pursuit and discovery of novel rules, laws and principles that govern natural phenomena. AIST places its highest priority on the pursuit of complete research, "Full Research", ranging from Type-I Basic Research to the development of products by conducting intensive Type-II Basic Research. Each Unit of AIST places its highest priorities on establishing an integrated research system that enables researchers with different scientific backgrounds to participate in scenario-oriented research projects to address the needs of society.

Employees

The institute employs researchers of various backgrounds and levels of expertise who carry out research with respect to the three main mission of the institute. The number of employees are as follows: * Researchers: 2,288 :*Tenured researchers: 2,046 :*Fixed-term researchers: 242 * Administrative staffs: 661 * Total number of employees: 2,949 (as of April 1, 2012)

Geological Survey of Japan

The Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) was created from geoscientific research units within AIST in 2001 to replace the old GSJ created in 1882.

Notable scientists

* Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, former President of AIST,

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

(1993–1997), Science Council of Japan (1997–2003) and

International Council for Science The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...

(ICSU) (1999–2002) * Jun Kondo, a famous researcher for the

Kondo effect In physics, the Kondo effect describes the scattering of conduction electrons in a metal due to magnetic impurities, resulting in a characteristic change i.e. a minimum in electrical resistivity with temperature. The cause of the effect was fir ...

Sumio Iijima is a Japanese physicist and inventor, often cited as the inventor of carbon nanotubes. Although carbon nanotubes had been observed prior to his "invention", Iijima's 1991 paper generated unprecedented interest in the carbon nanostructures and ...

, the discoverer of the

Carbon nanotube A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon nan ...

* Yoshinori Tokura, famous for

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal ...

experiments * Hiromichi Kataura, well known for his research in

carbon nanotubes A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon nan ...

and for the Kataura plot * Satoshi Hirano, author of HORB middleware

Products

* ''HRP-2 Promet'', a domestic general helper robot (under development) in joint

Humanoid Robotics Project The Humanoid Robotics Project (HRP) is a project for development of general domestic helper robots, sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), spearh ...

wit
Kawada Industries
*

HRP-4C The HRP-4C, nicknamed Miim, is a feminine-looking humanoid robot created by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), a Japanese research facility. Miim measures 158 centimetres (5 feet, 2 inches) tall and wei ...

, a female humanoid robot. * Paro, a baby

harp seal The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as Saddleback Seal or Greenland Seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus ''Phoca'' with a number ...

robot for therapeutic use. * DeleGate, a multi-purpose application-level gateway /

proxy server In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a reques ...

. *

Spectral Database for Organic Compounds The Spectral Database for Organic Compounds (SDBS) is a free online searchable database hosted by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, that contains spectral data for ca 34,000 organic molecules. Th ...

(SDBS), a free online searchable database containing Raman, EPR, FT-IR, EI-MS, ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra of ca 34,000 organic compounds. *

Structure atlas of human genome The Structure atlas of human genome (SAHG) is a database of protein-structure-prediction. See also *Protein structure Protein structure is the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in an amino acid-chain molecule. Proteins are polymers sp ...

References

External links

AIST Web site

an

"Robotic helper coming soon" {{authority control Independent Administrative Institutions of Japan Research institutes in Japan Robotics organizations 2001 establishments in Japan