21st Inter-Academia Conference was held in Poland (hosted by Warsaw University of Technology)

Inter-Academia 2024, the 21st international conference with partner universities in Central and Eastern Europe, was held on September 4-6, 2024, hosted by Warsaw University of Technology (WUT). The conference, attended by 102 participants from 11 countries, was the first in several years to be held exclusively face-to-face. From Shizuoka University (SU), 23 faculty members and graduate students participated, including Professor Masakazu Hara (Dean, Graduate School of Science and Technology) and Professor Kazuhiko Hara (Dean, Graduate School of Medical Photonics).

Prior to the opening ceremony, the SU delegation paid a courtesy visit to WUT and met with Prof. Adam Wozniak, Vice President for Development of WUT, and H.E. Mr. Akio Miyajima, Ambassador of Japan to Poland, to share the overview of the exchange between WUT and SU that has led to the 21st Inter-Academia Conference.

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Wozniak, H.E. Mr. Miyajima Ambassador, and Professor K. Hara were invited by Prof. Ryszard Jablonski (WUT), General Chair of this 21st conference, to deliver the opening remarks. They were followed by three invited lectures, including one by Associate Professor Kazuo Shimizu (Shizuoka University).

The venue was then moved to the old castle in Plutusk, located about 50 km north of Warsaw, where 31oral presentations adding to those 3 invited talks, 29 poster presentations, and 27 short presentations by young presenters, mainly graduate students, were held throughout the conference period. The Young Researchers Award for students and young researchers was presented to seven winners, including two Shizuoka graduate students. In addition to the research presentations, discussions were actively held among the member universities to expand exchanges. At the Executive Committee meeting, it was approved that Vilnius University (Lithuania), recently conducting research exchanges with Shizuoka University, would join the community of Inter-Academia.

During the closing banquet, Professor Annamária R. Varkonyi-Koczy, representing Obuda University (Hungary) delivered an announcement that they will host the 22nd conference next year (2025).

We express our gratitude to the Suzuki Foundation for their support and their generous grant since the very inception of Inter-Academia, which has greatly aided in broadening the reach of our research outcomes.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the supports from Hamamatsu Photonics and WADIM Plast.