The Program of Materials Science and Engineering in the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Tsukuba offers a NIMS Junior Research Assistantship for students seeking to complete a Ph. D. degree in the program. The successful candidate will receive a monthly stipend of approximately 200,000 JPY as a research assistant. The contract is renewable every year up to three years. The research conducted by the NIMS Junior Research Assistant is a component of the supervisor's research. JRAs are expected to carry out the research as part of the supervisor's research project. The research usually becomes the basis for a thesis.

1. Qualification
Graduate students who are pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the doctoral program in Materials Science and Engineering or a M.S. degree in the Materials Science and Engineering course in the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Tsukuba are qualified. The applicants must be under 30 years of age when admitted to the doctoral program.

2. Duties
The duties of JRAs include maintaining and operating scientific instrumentation, creative involvement in the thesis advisor's research projects, performing experiments, analyzing and publishing the results, attending conferences to present the results, and training and supervising junior students or visitors to the institute. JRAs must obey the general rules for the NIMS staff members. The academic research for the student's thesis project is not a part of the duties of the JRA's, but usually there is a close link between the thesis topic and the research project for the JRA's.

3. Monthly Stipend
About 2,000,000 JPY will be paid to the JRAs for the work of 14 days per month. Any additional time is associated with their academic research for their thesis topics.

4. Contract
The contract is initially for one year and is renewable every year up to three years. The contract will be terminated if the student fails to demonstrate his/her excellence in research or leaves the program.

5. Application
The application should be made through the applicants' (prospective) supervisors. The NIMS JRA was awarded to all of the admitted students during the academic year 2004.

6. Contact

Mr. Masato Yokoyama
Dept. of Personnel, Division of General Affairs
National Institute for Materials Science
1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan
Phone:+81-29-859-2052, E-mail:YOKOYAMA.Masato@nims.go.jp