9:20 AM - 9:40 AM
[U06-02] IUGG and Japan: the past, the present, and the way to go from now
★Invited Papers
Keywords:IUGG, International cooperation, Way to go from now
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) was formed in 1919 and held its first General Assembly in 1922. A hundred years has passed since then. Japan was one of the seven member countries which joined IUGG at the inauguration. Prof. A. Tanakadate of Tokyo University represented Japan at that time, and he was elected as one of three Vice-Presidents for 1919-1922. Since then, except the period that Japan was vetoed to take part in the Assemblies after Japan was defeated in 1945, Japan has consistently been a strong supporter of the IUGG activities.
Because of the "cold war" after the end of the world war, there were very few chances that east and west scientists meet at the same place, IUGG and other international scientific organizations were playing an important role in providing such opportunities. In particular the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-1958 was a splendid opportunity for cooperation between east and west countries. Japan took part in this project in many subject including the rocket observation, but among them, the start of the antarctic research which was carried out with the concent of the international community, was a highlight of this project.
Several decades have passed since then. In these years, the status of IUGG became quite low. IUGG holds it General Assembly every four years, collecting 3000 to 4000 scientists, but AGU Fall meeting is held every year, and nowadays they receive about 30,000 participants while keeping the scientific standards quite high. Nowadays, there are EGU, JpGU, and others which collect more than 10,000 participants. These societies also have well-cited jounals to output scientific results in printed form. It looks that there is little possibility that IUGG can compete with these societies in the scientific merit.
With these situations in mind, which way should IUGG go in the future? One possibility is to work in problems which concerns the whole Earth, and thus it is impossible to find the solution in a single country. A clear example of such a problem is the Global Warming. The international scientific organization which deals with this is IPCC, but the scientists working in IPCC have strong ties with some of the Associations in IUGG (eg., IAMAS, IAPSO, IAHS). Another possibility is to look for a scientifically important probem, which usually has small number of scientists engaged in the problem. A good example in IUGG is SEDI which works in the deep interior of the Earth. It is also an interdisciplinary science including seismology, geomagnetism and others. SEDI seems to prosper by providing an interdisciplinary platform for these hundred or so very high-level scientists.
Because of the "cold war" after the end of the world war, there were very few chances that east and west scientists meet at the same place, IUGG and other international scientific organizations were playing an important role in providing such opportunities. In particular the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-1958 was a splendid opportunity for cooperation between east and west countries. Japan took part in this project in many subject including the rocket observation, but among them, the start of the antarctic research which was carried out with the concent of the international community, was a highlight of this project.
Several decades have passed since then. In these years, the status of IUGG became quite low. IUGG holds it General Assembly every four years, collecting 3000 to 4000 scientists, but AGU Fall meeting is held every year, and nowadays they receive about 30,000 participants while keeping the scientific standards quite high. Nowadays, there are EGU, JpGU, and others which collect more than 10,000 participants. These societies also have well-cited jounals to output scientific results in printed form. It looks that there is little possibility that IUGG can compete with these societies in the scientific merit.
With these situations in mind, which way should IUGG go in the future? One possibility is to work in problems which concerns the whole Earth, and thus it is impossible to find the solution in a single country. A clear example of such a problem is the Global Warming. The international scientific organization which deals with this is IPCC, but the scientists working in IPCC have strong ties with some of the Associations in IUGG (eg., IAMAS, IAPSO, IAHS). Another possibility is to look for a scientifically important probem, which usually has small number of scientists engaged in the problem. A good example in IUGG is SEDI which works in the deep interior of the Earth. It is also an interdisciplinary science including seismology, geomagnetism and others. SEDI seems to prosper by providing an interdisciplinary platform for these hundred or so very high-level scientists.