Politician or Professor

Heeding to the advice from the researcher in Tokyo University Segawa lab, my professor started to make contact with Professor Segawa through phone. After a few days of trying, she came to my research room on the 3rd day, giving me the bad news.

"I think Segawa-sensei is a politician more than a professor", she said. When she had expressed to Professor Segawa that she has a student interested in entering the lab. Segawa-sensei said that he had already heard about me from Uchida-sensei, the professor that I had visited. My professor and Segawa-sensei started to talk about my research field and he immediately tried to deny the feasibility of my direction. My professor got a little bit upset, because Segawa-sensei himself has just started his research on dye-sensitized solar cell not so long ago and he wasn't being open-minded.

The professor described him to me as someone very condescending because he is the head of that research team at the moment. My professor didn't even tell him about her background in Tokyo University. So it turned out, my professor's old master degree teacher is now the president of Tokyo University. She could have used that relationship to pressure Segawa-sensei to let me enter, but I am very happy that she didn't. We got to see the political side of this professor when he looked down on us.

On the other hand, the professor has suggested me to enter the lab of her old classmate, Hashimoto lab. I had originally sent an email to him, which he replied on the 2nd time but because our direction was slightly different, he asked me to switch to his field if I am to enter his lab.

So right now, Kyoto is right back on the table as well, given that the entrance exam might be difficult to pass for either one. I might need an extra 1/2 year to study for it.