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Words of Wisdom —

Physicist Sumio Iijima: “True education means fostering the ability to be interested in something.”

“Research can be undertaken in any kind of environment, as long as you have the interest. I believe that true education means fostering the ability to be interested in something.”
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Sumio Iijima (b. 1939) is a Japanese physicist and one of the inventors of carbon nanotubes, which have practical uses in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science and technology. He has been awarded the Kavli Prize for Nanoscience, the Benjamin Franklin Medal of Physics, and is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences (foreign associate) and the Japan Academy. Iijima currently teaches at both Nagoya University in Japan and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.

“Research can be undertaken in any kind of environment, as long as you have the interest. I believe that true education means fostering the ability to be interested in something.”

Source:About myself, To the younger generation, in Innovative Engine, column for NEC researchers, Sep.25, 2007 (4th edition)

(h/t WikiQuote)

Photo credit: “名城2010Fとともに” by 齋藤千絵 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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