Prof. Reiko Kuroda, Vice-President of the ICSU (International Council for Science) visited ICHARM/PWRI.

Venue: Tsukuba, Japan

Date: 2 April2009

Participants:47

Prof. Reiko Kuroda of Tokyo University, Vice-President of ICSU, visited ICHARM and PWRI on 2nd April.

ICSU (International Council for Science) was founded in 1931 to promote international scientific activity in the different branches of science and its application for the benefit of humanity. On its 29th General Assembly in 2008, ICSU approved an international research program; IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) that addresses the challenge of natural and human-induced environmental hazards.

Dr. Kuroda is Professor of Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. She obtained B.Cs from Ochanomizu University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in Chemistry. Her research on chirality (left and right handedness) is widely known in the world and she was awarded prizes such as Saruhashi Prize and Nissan Science Prize. She served as a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office.

She gave a lecture entitled "Science in the 21st century" in the seminar. About 50 people attended the seminar and had active discussion with her.
She also visited PWRI laboratories concerning to dams, earthquakes and water contamination, and exchanged views on the new ICSU program; Integrated Research on Disaster Risk.