NAGAI Laboratory
Q1．What is your current job?
I am currently a clinical academic working at the University of Manchester, UK.
Q2．What has been useful to you in your work after studying at Nagai lab, and what has been utilized in your current work?
I've been able to work in the Nagai lab in Sapporo (when we held a joint Royal Society Grant (2011-13) and I was able to visit again in Osaka (2017) as a JSPS visiting Professor. I have really enjoyed seeing how the lab has grown, and how the organisational structure within the group has changed to let it grow successfully.
Q3．Message to juniors
The legacy that I still use today, and will use for the rest of my career, is that you can see new biology if you can imagine a new way to look. Creativity is nothing without hard work, invent many things, and expect that most of the inventions will fail - but when they succeed celebrate with all those around you that made it possible. The Nagai lab knows how to celebrate!
[ Prof.Nagai’s visit to England ]
We have been able to have Prof Nagai visit a few times over the years. I am always pleased to be able to introduce his way of thinking about scientific research to my colleagues and share his dismay about the bandwagon of phenomenology that follows knocking something down, or ramping something up that is common place (he has a nice phrase that went along the lines "nantokka nantokka agetari, sagetari" and was followed by a facial expression of disappointment). Most of all we enjoy trying to solve problems with beer in a nice English pub.
The thing about intellectual curiosity is that you can't work out the conditions needed to have a good idea, so the diversity of the experience, even if it is touring the butterfly house in a stately home, can sometimes trigger a different way of seeing the world.
