Doctor Chen Yu had, of course, heard early on about the hospital's intention to promote Jounouchi Hiromi to Associate Professor; Professor Kube had mentioned this while discussing with him his own anticipated promotion from Assistant Professor to full Professor this year.
Indeed, Hiromi's qualifications had been a limiting factor. Had she possessed a doctoral degree, her achievements in the Artificial Womb research project would have fully qualified her for a Professorship, especially since even at Tokyo University Medical School Hospital, few professors could boast such research success.