Just wrapped up a very inspiring and productive one-week research trip in Austria 🇦🇹✨

Detailed are here (Linkedin of Prof. Saito)https://x.gd/rkIQb

Montanuniversität Leoben

At Montanuniversität Leoben Department Metallurgie, Leoben, we had great discussions with Prof. Christian Weiß and his group, Simon Moll, Nina, Bernhard Mitas, and agreed to further expand our long-term research collaboration. We’re planning mutual visits of students and researchers very soon to deepen our joint work.
I’m truly delighted to share that the measurement technique for electrical conductivity of molten slag, developed at 九州大学 Kyushu University using the van der Pauw-Ohta method, has now also been successfully adopted in Austria!

SAXS Excites & XRD Excites 2026

At Technische Universität Graz, I had the pleasure of giving a keynote lecture at SAXS Excites & XRD Excites 2026, co-organized with Anton Paar, entitled:
“High-Temperature XRD for Green Steelmaking: In-Situ Insights into Slag Carbonation, Mold-Flux Crystallization, and UHTC Stability.”
I shared recent results from our high-temperature XRD studies, along with an overview of carbon-neutral steelmaking technologies in Japan. It was also great to chair a keynote session and see Prof. Takehiro Sumita presenting a poster on recent improvements to high-temperature chambers for XRD.

Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen our understanding of metallurgical processes by fully leveraging Anton Paar’s outstanding high-temperature XRD systems and world-class rheometers. Excited about what’s coming next!