Introduction to NIRS International Open Laboratory (IOL)

Brief history: IOL started at the end of 2008 and its first term ended in March 2011after 2 years and four months. Drs Hirohiko Tsujii and Ohtsura Niwa were very instrumental in the establishment of IOL. The first term IOL has three unit leaders and three distinguished scientists: These are Yukio Uchihori for the Space Radiation Research unit working with Professor Tom Hei from Columbia University (USA), Takeshi Murakami for the Particle Therapy Model Research unit working with Professor Anders Brahme from Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and Ryuichi Okayasu for the Particle Radiation Molecular biology unit working with Professor Penny Jeggo, University of Sussex (UK). Dr Tsujii was named as Director of the first-term IOL. These three units scored ‘excellent’ for overall evaluation for their accomplishment by the international review committee organized in 2010. Many workshops were held by these IOL units and helped further the internationalization of NIRS.