RIKEN iTHEMS and Taiwan’s NCTS Launch Joint Research Initiative to Foster Outstanding Early-Career Researchers, Hold Signing Ceremony

In April 2026, the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) and the National Center for Theoretical Sciences (NCTS) in Taiwan launched a joint research initiative titled “Mathematical Frontiers for Matter, Life, and the Universe,” which aims to address fundamental questions in matter, life, the universe, and society through interdisciplinary approaches centered on mathematics. A signing ceremony was held on April 23 at National Taiwan University (NTU).

Representing RIKEN at the ceremony were Satoshi Iso (Director, iTHEMS), Shigehiro Nagataki (Deputy Director, iTHEMS; Division Director, Division of Global Collaborations and Research Talent Development), Yasuyuki Kawahigashi (Deputy Director, iTHEMS), and Tomoya Nagai (Coordinator, iTHEMS). Participants from National Taiwan University (NTU) included Chih-Hsing Yang (Executive Vice President, NTU), Chung-Chih Wu (Vice President for Research and Development (R&D), NTU), Pei-Ming Ho (Director, NCTS), and Ming-Lun Hsieh (Director, NCTS), along with theoretical researchers in physics, mathematics, and related scientific fields from multiple institutions.

Through this collaboration, the two institutions aim to further strengthen their partnership by expanding researcher exchanges, co-organizing international symposia, and promoting international collaborative research in cutting-edge theoretical sciences.

In addition, this partnership seeks to provide early-career theoretical researchers with an environment that offers a high degree of academic freedom, while creating valuable opportunities to collaborate with researchers across a broad range of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields within Asia’s leading theoretical physics and mathematics communities.