From the Early Universe to the Evolution of Life

December 1st

10:00

Excursion to MPI for Astrophysics and EMBL

Opening Ceremony

15:00

Welcome and Greetings

15:05

Bernhard Eitel (Rector Heidelberg University)

15:10

Elisabeth Knust (Vice president DFG)

15:30

Keynote Lectures

• Birth of the universe and multiverse
  Katsuhiko Sato (President NINS)

• How metabolism and genes may act together
  Mathias Hentze (Vice Director EMBL)

• Stem cells, cell-material integration, and mesoscopic sciences
  Norio Nakatsuji (ICeM)

• Natural Science and Ethics
  Klaus Tanner (Heidelberg Univ)

• Natural Science, in past, present and future
  Yoichiro Murakami (President Toyo Eiwa University)

17:30

Reception

18:15

Christmas Market

19:30

Dinner

December 2nd

Session 1 / Astronomy
Chairs Masanori Iye and Thomas Henning

08:00

From the early universe to the formation of galaxies
Masanori Iye (NAOJ)

08:25

The formation of the first stars

Ralf Klessen (Heidelberg University)

08:50

The first steps towards planet formation

Cornelis Dullemond (Heidelberg University)

09:15

From planetesimals to planets: implications for diversity of extrasolar planetary systems and ubiquity of super-Earths

Shigeru Ida (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

09:40

Direct imaging of exoplanets and their formation sites with Subaru

Motohide Tamura (NAOJ)

10:05

Coffee Break

10:30

The 4.6-billion-year history of the Sun and its influence on Earth’s climate

Saku Tsuneta (NAOJ)

10:55

The search for super-Earths
Didier Queloz (Geneva University)

11:20

Chemistry in the formation of stars and planetary systems

Yuri Aikawa (Kobe University)

11:45

The atmospheres of habitable planets

Lisa Kaltenegger (MPI Astronomy)

12:15

Lunch

13:15

Short Talks
Tobias Albertsson Deuterium Chemistry in hot and cold environments / Beth Biller High-contrast imaging search for extrasolar planets / Aya Higuchi Triggered cluster formation by the dynamical interaction of dense molecular gas / Masayuki Yokoyama Status and prospect of nuclear fusion science for future energy sources / Christoph Mordasini The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets / Yasuhito Sekine Co-evolution of the atmosphere, oceans, and life over Earth`s history / Dmitry Semenov Chemical evolution of a protoplanetary disk / Mikito Tanaka First time galactic archaeology / Fredrik Windmark A new dust collision model to overcome barriers / Fernanda Rossetti Fine structures of 2-dimensional membranes probed by xray and neutron scattering / Akihito Ishizaki Quantum mechanics in photosynthetic systems / Shigeyuki Masaoka Chemistry of transition metal complexes for solar energy conversion

Session 2 / Chemistry

Chairs Kenji Ohmori and Motomu Tanaka

14:30

Chemistry of the early earth

Peter Schuster (Vienna University)

14:55

Low-temperature chemistry in the laboratory

Andreas Wolf (MPI Nuclear Physics Heidelberg)

15:20

Coffee Break

15:40

Attosecond quantum engineering

Kenji Ohmori (IMS)

16:05

Advanced design of heterogeneous catalyst surfaces

Mizuki Tada (IMS)

16:30

Evolutionary transition from the ancient RNA to the modern protein world

Irmi Sinning (Heidelberg University)

19:00

Conference Dinner
Greeting on the 150th anniversary of German-Japanese relationship

Kenji Okada (Minister of the Embassy of Japan in Germany)
Buddhism and natural sciences

Shoken Miyama (Director-General NAOJ)

December 3rd

Session 2 / Chemistry

Chairs Motomu tanaka and Kenji Ohmori

08:45

High precision spectroscopy with optical lattice clock

Hidetoshi Katori (Tokyo University)

09:10

Quantitative regulation of cells and tissues on soft interfaces

Motomu Tanaka (Heidelberg University)

09:35

Short Talks
Ilka Bischofs Quantitative analysis of biofilms and systems biology of bacteria/ Yamila Miguel Composition of hot super-Earth atmospheres/ Lazaro Centanin Multipotency and fate- restriction in retinal stem cells / Thorsten Erdmann Robustness of morphogen gradients / Yuki Hamamura Mechanism of fertilization in plants: Live-imaging of sperm-cell egg cell interactions / Alexis Maizel Developmental plasticity and robustness in plants / Hideki Mochizuki Perception mechanism of itch / Masae Naruse Development of glial cells – Regulation of oligodendrocyte development in the forebrain / Hidehiko Okamoto Auditory processing in the brain / Yuichi Tamura Haptic representation of science in virtual reality / lIdiko Somorjai Evolution of stern cells / Hiroshi Koyama How can we know mechanical states in living cells? Theoretical prediction of cellular stiffness during cell division / Sayuri Tsukahara Centromere specific integrations of copia-type retrotransposons in Arabidopsis Iyrata

10:35

Coffee Break

Session 3 / Biological Science

Chairs Kiyotaka Okada and Thomas Holstein

11:00

Functional metagenomics of extremophiles

Christa Schleper (Vienna University)

11:25

Challenges to identify novel hormones in plants

Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi (NIBB)

11:50

Signaling and synthetic biology

Roland Eils (DKFZ Heidelberg)

12:15

The Painful and itchy Brain

Ryusuke Kakigi (NIPS)

12:45

Lunch

13:45

Stem cells and the evolution of the nervous system
Jochen Wittbrodt (Heidelberg University)

14:10

Synaptic plasticity in the Brain
Hannah Monyer (Heidelberg University)

14:35

Retrotransposon derived genes in mammalian development and evolution

Fumitoshi Ishino (Tokyo Medical and Dental University)

15:00

Coffee Break

Science 4 / Science, Industry and Society

Chair Thomas Holstein and Kiyotaka Okada

15:30

From biodiversity to Designer Bugs: Bioinspired engineering of producer microorganisms

Jürgen Eck

15:55

Synthetic biology: New chances for biotechnology?

Alfred Pühler (ACATECH)

16:20

Energy science and civilization

Kimitaka Itoh (NIFS)

16:45

Road map of Large Research Projects in Japan-On complementary roles of big science and small science

Hiroshi Yamada (NIFS)

17:05

Short Break

17:15

Discussion for the Future

17:45

Closing Remarks
Kiyotaka Okada (NIPS)

19:00

Dinner