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NS Forum × President's Convocation Hour Hosts Lecture by Dr. Fumiko Kawazoe: "Life Itself Is Scientific"
Update: May 15, 2026
On May 11, 2026, the NS Forum × President's Convocation Hour was held, featuring a lecture titled "Life Itself Is Scientific" by physicist Dr. Fumiko Kawazoe.
Dr. Kawazoe, the invited speaker, has long been involved in international collaborative research on gravitational-wave detection. Currently based in Hanover, Germany, she works on gravitational-wave observation using laser interferometers and has participated in Japan's TAMA300 project since its early stages.
At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Kawazoe reflected on the commonly held view that the humanities and natural sciences are separate domains. In reality, she suggested, the two are deeply interconnected in actual learning environments. Music cannot be separated from the physics of waves, and philosophy itself forms a starting point for science. History, sociology, economics, and linguistics are all supported by scientific thinking through data analysis, statistics, and verifiable theories. Through these examples, she emphasized that academic disciplines are originally connected like a "ring," encouraging students to move freely across boundaries, combine different fields, and discover something new.
Her discussion of how to learn also left a strong impression. One must notice one's curiosity, observe carefully, and formulate questions. Yet, rather than rushing toward answers, Dr. Kawazoe stressed the importance of "letting questions mature." Referring to the research philosophy she learned from her mentor, Dr. Seiji Kawamura of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, she spoke about the value of "spacing out" as part of research practice. Allowing the mind to wander, she explained, nurtures intuition and serves as a guide when exploring unknown worlds.
In the latter half of the lecture, Dr. Kawazoe introduced her own research on gravitational-wave detection by tracing the "seeds of curiosity" from her childhood. She shared stories of racing marbles down slopes at the age of six and wondering what would happen if a dragonfly flew into a train standing at a platform--episodes both amusing and endearing, hinting at the path that would eventually lead her to become a physicist. Gravitational waves, she explained, are ripples in spacetime whose distortions are as tiny as approximately 10?21 meters--an almost unimaginably small scale. Nevertheless, with instruments developed from the Michelson interferometer, such waves are now detected almost daily. She also recounted that, at the moment of the world's first detection in 2015, the first people to notice the signal were two postdoctoral researchers in Hanover, the same city where she now works.
According to Dr. Kawazoe, scientific thinking involves expressing one's ideas externally, receiving other people's perspectives as "error signals," and feeding them back into one's thinking in a continuous feedback loop. Cars and air conditioners, she noted, could not function without this principle. She further illustrated how science exists throughout everyday life by discussing changes in indoor humidity when laundry is hung to dry during winter. The lecture concluded with the message that "curiosity is the starting point of science."
During the Q&A session, lively exchanges took place on topics such as differences between science and engineering education in Germany and Japan, and how students should approach choosing double majors within a liberal arts education. Dr. Kawazoe explained that in Germany, students must narrow their specialization relatively early in order to proceed to doctoral studies, whereas in Japan the doctoral process itself is often considered part of the learning journey. "Both cultures have their strengths," she remarked. Reflecting candidly on how she initially chose physics strategically for university entrance examinations while continuing to maintain an interest in biology, she encouraged students not to focus solely on what may be useful ten years from now, but instead to choose what they genuinely wish to study in the present.
The lecture proved to be a warm yet intellectually stimulating occasion in which the essence of liberal arts education intertwined with the journey of a leading researcher at the forefront of science.
