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Multidisciplinary Sciences

Under the new system that places greater emphasis on graduate level education, the Department of Multi-Disciplinary Sciences has grown to comprise three sub-departments: Life Sciences, General Systems Studies, and Basic Science. As of 2011, there are 172 faculty members in the department (57 in Life Sciences, 42 in General Systems Studies, and 73 in Basic Science), as well as 210 doctoral students and 240 master's students.

The Department of Multi-Disciplinary Sciences consists of a variety of fields across the life, mathematical, information and material sciences, and is a large department where faculty members from diverse backgrounds work together to promote education and research. The Department is not segmented into traditional academic disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, and geology, but is rather divided into three sub-departments, which cooperate with one another while pursuing their unique educational and research aims.

Life Sciences aims to investigate the dynamics of life based on the key concept of 'from DNA to humans', while General Systems Studies aims to explore macro systems science based on the concept of "from artificial systems to outer space". Lastly, with the key phrase "from quarks to intelligent materials", Basic Science aims to advance the frontiers of research in the material sciences, covering everything from elementary particles, atomic nuclei, atoms and molecules to a variety of complex systems. The defining characteristic of the Department of Multi-Disciplinary Science is its emphasis on multidisciplinarity: front-line researchers from a variety of fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, life sciences, earth and planetary sciences, information sciences, sports sciences, psychology, human geography, history and philosophy of science, and science and technology studies come together at this department. Particularly notable areas of research are those that lie at the boundary of the arts and sciences, including mathematical models of natural phenomena; instrumental analysis in the life sciences that utilize tools from physics and chemistry; environmental health sciences; environmental ecology; scientific analysis of psychological phenomena; and ethics of science and technology.

The department hopes to attract students with the pioneering spirit to pave new paths of research.

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