On 15 October, Kyoto University and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) signed an agreement to strengthen their collaboration in research and education with a view to significantly contributing to the development of marine science and technology in Japan.
Prior to the signing ceremony, KU representatives made a visit to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Yokohama Dockyard & Machinery Works Honmoku Plant, where JAMSTEC's riser drilling vessel Chikyu was undergoing routine maintenance. The group listened to presentations by JAMSTEC President Asahiko Taira and Dr Shin'ichi Kuramoto, Deputy Director-General of JAMSTEC's Center for Deep Earth Exploration (CDEX), before touring the vessel -- viewing its bridge, helicopter deck, and area for cutting core samples obtained from the sea floor -- all in view of the Chikyu 's towering derrick.
The signing of the agreement took place at Kyoto University's Tokyo Office, where the proceedings included presentations by researchers from both sides on the themes to be pursued under the KU-JAMSTEC partnership.
After the ceremony, President Juichi Yamagiwa delivered a speech expressing his hope that new perspectives and fields of inquiry would open up as a result of researchers from the two institutions combining their promising projects to make them more "omoroi" ("interesting" or "fun" in the Kansai dialect) to the international audience, referring to the campaign he had launched upon taking office last year to promote omoroi initiatives within his university. He concluded his talk by emphatically stating that the future depended on the young people that his university was sending out into the world, and that he wanted the KU-JAMSTEC partnership to help those people expand their horizons, leading to a bright and prosperous future.
Under the partnership agreement, Kyoto University and JAMSTEC intend to increase their collaboration in a wide range of areas, especially those involving fieldwork, such as extreme biosphere exploration, microorganism application, frontier material engineering, neo civil engineering, seismogenic zone research, and ocean dynamics. They will also work to implement joint projects and to promote researcher exchanges as well as education, research, and training collaborations. Through these efforts, the two organizations aim to actively contribute to solving the complex, global problems facing humanity.
The riser drilling vessel Chikyu as viewed from the dock
Inside the bridge of the Chikyu
On the Chikyu 's helicopter deck
In front of the Chikyu 's derrick
JAMSTEC President Taira (left) and KU President Yamagiwa after the signing of the agreement
Signing ceremony attendees from Kyoto University and JAMSTEC
