As Mikami was engaged on his analysis, he got here to a realization. “When I approached and asked someone to talk about what they do, they sometimes responded as if I were about to judge their work. This is because up until today, experts in humanities and social sciences have only been involved as third-party observers in science and technology, arbitrating whether something was ‘good’ or ‘bad’ once the research was complete. I thought that this has to change.” In 2019, when Mikami grew to become a school member at Keio University, he was given the possibility to result in this variation. Mikami meets recurrently with a bunch of researchers who specialise in totally different areas of science, comparable to biology, chemistry, and informatics to be able to foster new scientific initiatives in synthetic cells, molecular robotics, and others.
In this effort, Mikami makes use of his background in humanities and social sciences to assemble a variety of viewpoints and details about scientific analysis being performed and attempt to arrange them right into a roadmap for the group, thereby facilitating productive discussions in regards to the future course of the initiatives. “I’ve taken it upon myself to be a go-between for these projects. I think it’s vital that people are able to debate the types of needs and issues a project
might face so that science and technology can be integrated successfully into society. Experts with different academic backgrounds often have different ways of thinking and doing research, so the meetings are full of stimulating discussions.”
When this workforce’s initiatives result in new discoveries sooner or later, Mikami says “I want to be involved in research studying how the scientific knowledge or technologies produced can be meaningful in society. Each and every one of us, myself included, is working individually on research that we find fascinating. Coming together as a group without changing that is when we will truly achieve ‘creative collaboration,’ or what is sometimes called ‘co-creation.’” The outcomes that this may result in will make vital change within the relationship between humanities, social sciences, science, and know-how.
Mikami can be enthusiastic about educating college students at Keio University. “The Faculty of Science and Technology is full of students who will be future researchers or who work at companies using their specialized knowledge. It’s worrying if these people are convinced that they ‘are doing everything right.’ I will be thrilled if my classes can be the inspiration for them to look at science and technology from diverse perspectives and see it as a complex practice in society.” This is Mikami’s motivation as he goes as much as the category podium each day.