Earth-Life Science Institute — Search for the Origin of Earth and Life
The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of Institute of Science Tokyo, established in 2012, is a member of research centers of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) Programme of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). ELSI’s mission is to discover the “origins of the Earth and life” through an integrated interdisciplinary approach that brings together top-level domestic and international researchers in fields such as Earth science, life science, and planetary science. ELSI investigates questions such as how Earth formed in the solar system, how life originated on Earth, and how life and the Earth arrived at their present forms. Furthermore, ELSI also considers how life might exist in other planetary systems based on this understanding of how Earth and life on Earth originated.

 

In April 2022, ELSI established a new graduate programmes in Earth-Life Science. This is one of the few integrated five-year Masters-PhD programmes provided fully in English in Japan. Students will receive both a Master’s degree and a PhD degree upon completion (upon completion of both a Master’s and PhD dissertation and defence in the second year and fifth years, respectively). ELSI has a target to accept up to 10 students per year (~5 Japanese, 5 international1) with financial support available (vide infra). Students will be affiliated with and formally supervised an ELSI Principal Investigator2 (PI) from one of the following departments:

-Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS)
-Department of Life Science and Technology (LST)
-Department of Chemical Science and Engineering (CSE)


For more information please visit ELSI Graduate Course website.

 Introduction to ELSI by WPI    

ELSI Graduate Course (Earth Life Course)