University of Hokkaido

Located in Sapporo and Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island, the University of Hokkaido has about 20,000 students. The university has grown since 1876 when it was called the Sapporo Agricultural College and only offered education in this one subject area to 24 students. It now has 12 faculties including law and medicine and 17 graduate schools. The university is home to numerous institutes and research centres. The Institute of Seismology and Volcanology has four research laboratories for seismological observation, ocean bottom seismology, volcano physics, and subsurface structure. In 2010, Dr. Akira Suzuki, an Emeritus Professor at Hokkaido University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.