Nishina School 2025

Thoughts and Comments from the Participants

Ken Sotooka

The Nishina School was an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with the basics of nuclear physics experiments and to experience the setting of international collaboration in scientific research. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, especially as a first-year physics student, as it allows me to explore one of the main topics that initially drew me to the field of physics.

My most memorable experience was seeing the vast experimental facilities at RIKEN. On just the second day, we were given a tour of the RI-beam factory by the RIKEN researchers. The main show of this tour was, of course, the world’s largest and highest-energy superconducting ring cyclotron. As someone who grew up in a place as small as Hong Kong, it is shocking to see just how large the facilities were. Being able to witness such a complex and advanced machine firsthand also made me realize just how far we have come in terms of scientific knowledge and technology, going from steam engines just 300 years ago to being able to precisely manipulate the building blocks of reality. Another thing I was impressed with was the cleanliness and orderliness of the facility, with not even a single speck of dust on the equipment. It reflects not just the precision of the experiments conducted here, but also the discipline that is core to Japanese culture. Overall, being able to tour the facilities first-hand gave me a much better understanding of the processes and procedures of nuclear physics experiments.

Another memorable experience was collaborating with students from other countries to run our own experiments. The Nishina school gave the rare opportunity of not just being able to experience what real nuclear physics experiments are like, but also to work with students from prestigious schools like Peking University and Seoul National University. For our experiment, we measured the activity after Boron-10 decays into Beryllium-7 due to proton-beam irradiation. Although this experiment was already set and had been done many times by previous Nishina School students, it was not without its challenges. We had to derive our own equations to predict the rate of gamma photons released by the decay: something that was very much above my level as a first-year student. Luckily, my teammates were experienced and knowledgeable 4th-year students, and under their guidance, we were able to successfully derive a theoretical prediction. Another challenge we faced was the huge discrepancy between our experimental and theoretical results, with our calculations being 5x lower than the actual value. We spent countless hours discussing and thinking of possible experimental errors or mistakes in our theory. However, in the end, we were not able to resolve the discrepancy and had to present our findings as they were. 

The experiment made me realize that in real research, things often do not go the way we want. But, we can still be honest and present our mistakes, as our errors can be a valuable finding on their own. Other researchers can also point out possible sources of error. In our case, one of the senior researchers pointed out a potential mistake in the theory: we might not have accounted for certain paths in alpha decay, leading to a huge underestimation of the count. Overall, this experience gave me insight into collaborating with international researchers who also have different knowledge and skill levels. Before, I had not considered the importance of language barriers, as I had wrongly assumed that everyone would be proficient in English. However, another student and I were able to act as translators for the other two students, helping us overcome these communication issues. I also realized how researchers can have expertise in different skills, allowing for better delegation of tasks. Despite having much less experience and knowledge than the 4th-year students, I was still able to contribute using my coding, data analysis, and presentation-making skills.

Finally, I also enjoyed the cultural aspect of this experience. As a Chinese-Japanese who grew up in Hong Kong, I never had much contact with any Japanese students, so this trip also gave me the opportunity to learn more about and interact with Japanese culture. RIKEN is also located in Saitama, which is more rural than the typical big cities of Japan, so this was also a good opportunity to see the peacefulness of smaller districts in Japan. During the weekend, I was also able to have fun and explore different parts of Tokyo, such as the Tokyo Tower, the Ginza shopping street, the bustling Shibuya crossroads, and get to eat a variety of different foods. We also did fun activities, such as the massive SEGA indoor playground in Odaiba, and karaoke in Shibuya. The final night of Nishina school was also very enjoyable, where we had a buffet of delicious Japanese food, and each  school did a small performance, some of which were quite entertaining.

The Nishina school was an unforgettable experience that not only gave me a taste and insight into real research for Nuclear Physics, but also allowed me to explore the culture of Japan. This was especially valuable to me as a first-year student, as it can help me decide the path of physics that I want to pursue. I am very grateful to HKU and Professor Jenny Lee for giving me this opportunity, and I hope to apply what I have learnt in my future Physics career.

Hu Junkai

The Nishina school provided great opportunity to reveal my personal potential. We spent a total of two days to finish data analysis and the preparation of experiment result reporting. Honestly, I don’t think I would finish all these works in two days if I was not given the time limit. The data analysis also let me pick up my knowledge of Python and made me familiar with commands of curve fitting.

Personally speaking, the ability of quick learning is very advantageous for science students, and this journey to Japan provided a good opportunity to practice such ability. During breakfast time on the 2nd day of schedule, I spent some time in learning basic Japanese phrases. From then on, I was able to smoothly convey my request to shop assistant at convenience stores, to have order and make payment at restaurants, and to ask local Japanese for directions when I lost my way. It was great sense of achievement when I found myself being able to communicate with local people without a translating app.

The most attractive part must be the hand-on experiment, through which I realized the necessity of thought experiment, or in other words, prediction of experimental results. While we spent only 1 hour on the actual experiment, it took 2 days to determine a theoretical value of the signals we expect to observe. The works included understanding of relevant equations, searching for literature values from literature reviews, and setting up models to get a numerical value. Fortunately, the experimental results of my group showed an acceptable difference of 20-30% from our prediction. However, one of the groups obtained a result five times different from the literature value, which was obviously impractical and indicated that there must be some significant background noise during the experiment. Reliability is a key virtue to be considered for scientific research. With the theoretical calculation beforehand, we can compare it to the experimental data obtained and evaluate whether the result is reasonable, so that we could avoid publishing misleading conclusions.

Xiaoyu Zhang

The entire experience in the Nishina school was really enjoyable. Once we arrived at Tokyo by ourselves we directly started to fit into the life in Japan as we had to find the way to Wako by metro or bus. It helps when we wanted to get back to Tokyo for leisure time. In the first meeting of Nishina school, what principal suggested was really the thing we felt, he said that we would have communications between different cultures. It's indeed very interesting when we work with other universities' students, like Peking University, Seoul National University and some universities from Japan. The arrangement of lectures and presentation preparation of Nishina school  is quite comfortable, the content is not hard so that we could still have energy to explore the city. The accomodation is also quite good, strong wifi in the room and great environment for sleeping as the walls well insulated sounds. As working in teams, we also made many new friends, and had some shows in the final party as the wonderful ending of this journey. The experiments and lectures successfully gave us a sight of what's nuclear physics and some questions have not answered yet. And the set of experiments and presentation also introduced us how physics conference works, mentors of each group also provided great help for understanding the project and how to make a conference talk.

Jian Hei Long

Looking back, my time at the Nishina School in RIKEN feels less like a formal program and more like an incredible dream. I’m deeply grateful for the unique opportunity to be part of it. As someone passionate about nuclear physics and hoping to build a career in the field, getting to not just see but actually use world-class equipment was absolutely mind-blowing.

The most memorable part was undoubtedly working with my group. Tasked with studying the in-beam reaction of 12C, our team included students from Beijing, Japan, and the US. At first, we were all a bit shy, and the language barrier felt very real. But we gradually learned to work together—listening more carefully, using gestures, and relying on the universal language of math and physics.

It was amazing to see how naturally we found our rhythm. One person excelled at coding, another at managing complex lab setups, and someone else had a brilliant intuition for theory. Instead of dividing us, our different strengths became our secret weapon. By the end, we weren’t just a group assigned to a project—we were a team that had built something we were genuinely proud of, both in the experiment and the final presentation.

Of course, the two weeks weren’t just spent in the lab. Anime and games turned out to be a common language among science students, and we quickly bonded during a weekend trip to Akihabara. One night, we luckily encountered Tokyo's largest fireworks festival. There was a huge crowd, though the fireworks weren't as impressive as we'd hoped—likely due to stricter urban regulations. Still, it was a good time. And the food was absolutely amazing, especially the yakiniku and unagi don. What really stood out to me was how affordable it was compared to Hong Kong. The quality was exceptional, and yet the prices felt so reasonable. Those meals deepen the bonds we formed through science.

This experience was more than just beneficial for my future in nuclear physics—though it certainly was that. It was a powerful lesson in collaboration, a glimpse into the practical side of research, and a chance to connect with other students who share the same excitement. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that reaffirmed my passion and direction in life.

Xuanan Ge

This was a once in a lifetime experience. As a first year just turning second, I was ignorant of all the details of doing scientific experiments. I only had a vague idea of what the scientists studying nuclear physics are doing. Nishina school gave me chance to finally get a peek into this realm that I’m constantly intrigued by.

I have to mention the accelerators, of course. Though we only used a small accelerator, it was more than anything I had expected. To me it was like finally seeing accelerators walk out of textbooks. Although the methodology behind them is well known, these accelerators were huge and complex. Going through the tour of the institution on the second day of the Nishina School, I was already beginning to feel that this experience was bridging my conceptual gap between methodology and actual application, theory and experiment.

In the end, ten days passed by in a blur and my time at RIKEN was over. I will not forget what happened here, where I got my first taste of doing modern accelerator physics experiments. I got to work with people of similar age and with similar interests from all over the world, met many professors and scientific researchers, gained many knowledge that will not doubt help me in my future studies.