JSPS Alumni Associations

JSPS Alumni Club in Sweden Holds General Meeting

On 11 February, the JSPS Alumni Club in Sweden held their first seminar along with their first general meeting since the members initial gathering in January of last year. Twenty-four former JSPS fellows came to Stockholm from around Sweden to attend the meeting at the Sheraton Hotel. They decided upon the association's bylaws, elected officers, and held a free discussion.

After lunch, a seminar featuring a presentation by JSPS's Stockholm Office deputy director Mr. Isao Mizuta was convened. He spoke on the theme "Higher Education in Japan," to which the participants showed keen interest via probing questions and engaging discussions. In a spirit of renewed commitment, the above commemorative photograph was taken of the group at the end of the event.

Symposium Held to Celebrate 10^th Anniversary of German JSPS Club

JSPS's Bonn Office organizes an annual symposium in cooperation with the JSPS Club (German fellows' alumni association) for the purpose of introducing leading-edge research being advanced in both countries, while promoting mutual understanding and joint initiatives between researchers of the two countries. This year, the event was held on 22-23 April at Gunnewig Hotel Bristol in Bonn.

The symposium, which celebrated the tenth anniversary of the JSPS Club, did not this time have one scientific topic as its subject. Rather, it was held on the theme "Prospects of Japanese-German Scientific Cooperation," under which presentations were given in six fields: biotechnology, physical chemistry, comparative and international education, physics, legal science, and psychological science. (The speakers' CVs and abstracts can be found on the following website: http://www.jsps-bonn.de/pages/nk05.htm)

Each topic was addressed by a pair of Japanese and German researchers who had worked together in a JSPS program. The pairs reported on the latest developments in their respective fields and on the products and prospects obtained through their collaborative work. They also offered proposals on ways to further advance Japan-German scientific cooperation.

In prelude to these presentations, remarks were offered by Mr. Akira Mizutani, Minister, Japanese Embassy in Germany; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess, vice-rector, University of Bonn; Dr. Georg Schutte, secretary general, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH); and Mr. Isao Kiso, executive director, JSPS. They congratulated the JSPS Club on its ten years of successful operation and voiced their expectations in the Club's role as a bridge for promoting German-Japanese understanding. Following them, JSPS Club chair Prof. Dr. Heinrich Menkhaus, currently a professor at Philipps-University of Marburg, gave an address entitled "The History of the German JSPS-Club."

After the symposium ended on the first day, a dinner party was held for all the participants. At it, Dr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, former secretary general, AvH, offered a toast with a wish for further development of Japan-German exchange. After the second day's sessions, a cultural program was held along with the annual meeting of the JSPS Club. At the meeting, an annual report was presented and an active discussion held on such items of business as plans for next year's symposium.

Attending the symposium were members of the JSPS Club, researchers from Bonn and other regions of Germany, and representatives of AvH, DFG, DAAD and other JSPS partner agencies. They listened attentively to the lecturers, who articulated the highly advanced content of their research in an easy-to-understand manner, allowing every one to engage actively in the Q&A discussions.

American Alumni Hold Symposium at Princeton

As part of its program to support the activities of the US JSPS Fellows Alumni Association, our office in Washington, DC funded a symposium organized by former JSPS fellows. It was held on 21-22 February under the title "JSPS-PRISM-TAMU Symposium on Quantum Materials Science." The acronyms in the title stand for the three cosponsors: JSPS, Princeton University, and Texas A&M University.

Opening remarks were delivered by former JSPS fellow Dr. Anil Kumar Patnaik, who chaired the symposium's organizing committee. Presentations were given by Prof. Kohzo Hakuta, who was Dr. Patnaik's host scientist at The University of Electro-Communications in Japan, and by Prof. Marlan Scully, who is currently guiding Dr. Patnaik's research work at Texas A&M. Attended by over 100 people, who actively engaged the lecturers in questions and discussion, the event was very successful in advancing dialogue on the theme as well as in spreading information on JSPS programs and deepening exchange between researchers from the US and Japan.