OIST FOUNDATIONIMPACT REPORT 2021
philanthropy . programs . people

31webinars
and virtual events

2In reflecting on the past year, we are struck by how much we have grown and how much we haveaccomplished, especially given that the OIST Foundation is only two years old.

new endowments
createdIn 2021, we welcomed new trustees, advisors, and ambassadors (subject-matter experts in fields
relevant to our work). We raised more than $400,000 in donations, pledges, and in-kind gifts, andestablished endowment funds for the first time. We offered programs that educated and engaged,deepening connections between the U.S. and Japan. We even helped to purchase a Steinway pianofor OIST. More on all of this is detailed on the following pages in our first-ever impact report.

ambassadors
named

Our impact is largely thanks to you, our dedicated supporters and donors. Without your expertise,time, and financial investments, we could not fulfill our mission to support OIST’s innovative
global scientific breakthroughs, the sustainable development of Okinawa, and deeper U.S.-Japanrelations.

410advisors andgrowingYou have also helped to elevate the Foundation’s profile, bringing attention to our work, toour mission, and to OIST. Most notably, we were recognized in the 2020 Education Exchange
Review Committee Final Report of the prestigious United States-Japan Conference on Cultural& Educational Interchange (CULCON) presented to former Prime Minster Suga. The reporthighlights OIST and the OIST Foundation for offering new types of student mobility between theU.S. and Japan: “The education offered at OIST is a starting point for a new form of U.S.-Japantechnological relationship and shows promise as a new type of student mobility.” The report goeson to say, “The establishment of the OIST Foundation in the U.S. is expected to create a new typeof academic exchange between the U.S. and Japan.”piano purchasedfor OISTAn example of academic exchange we are particularly proud of was our participation in the2021 SciPEP (Science Public Engagement Partnership) Conference where we shared ourexemplary U.S.-Japan Science Webinar Series that engages the U.S. and Japanese public on thefuture of science. We are grateful for your help in making OIST a leader in science worldwide.

trustees(up from 3 in 2019)32
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Thank you for making so much possible for OIST
and the OIST Foundation in 2021.

Takeshi Ueshima
ChairDavid Janes
President & CEOPHILANTHROPY
10th Anniversary Campaign Launches
to Advance Knowledge and Benefit Humanity
In just ten years, OIST has become a world leader in exploration, discovery, and innovation. In
celebration of this historic moment, OIST has launched a $1 million campaign to fuel anotherdecade of remarkable cross-disciplinary research and problem-solving. Under the guidance of anew campaign committee of the board, the 10th Anniversary Campaign began a “quiet phase”
earlier in the year. Together with OIST, we raised more than $500,000 as of September 2021,
including new endowed funds and competitive grants. To learn more about OIST’s 10th anniversarycelebrations and campaign, please visit anniversary.oist.jp.

New Endowments Support STEM
and Honor Okinawan Families
Building bridges to the Okinawan community by providing
science education to young people is a strategic priority
for OIST. However, it is not supported by the Japanese
government’s funding for the university, making outreachprograms dependent upon private philanthropy. In previousyears, the Foundation raised current-use funds for these
programs and supported a staff position in this area. In 2021,donors created first endowment funds to support K-12 STEM
(science, technology, engineering, and math) education.
Tsuruko and Matsuro Nakasone, 1953

The Matsuro and Tsuruko Nakasone
Endowment Fund honors thememory of donor Robert “Bob”
Nakasone’s parents, who weredeeply committed to their children’s
education and to their Okinawan
heritage. The Fund fosters thedevelopment of elementary andmiddle school students with aparticular focus on girls. When Bob
created the fund, he expressed hishope that it would inspire others to
do the same—and it did!

An anonymous couple wanted to follow Bob’s lead to honorfamily and support education. The donors combined charactersfrom their parents’ names to show the respect and gratitude they
have for their parents. The Seishyoukou Endowment Fund will
support STEM outreach that is focused on underserved youth in
Okinawa. Okinawa is one of the poorest prefectures in Japan,
and many young people live below the poverty line. Throughthe formation of this endowment, OIST will be able to begin
focusing some of its efforts on working with K-12 students whoare facing economic disadvantages.

A HiSci Lab classroom

Both funds will be invested for the long term and will growover time so there is always sustainable funding for OIST’s
educational outreach to Okinawa.

Major Grants Will Advance Climate and Environmental Programs
The OIST Foundation is honored to have been awarded prestigious grants from the U.S. Embassy
Tokyo and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. The Foundation’s ongoing programming aroundclimate change and environmental conservation drew the attention of these funders who madethe grants to continue work in this area. The U.S. Embassy grant will fund a training program forenvironmental entrepreneurs, while the Commission grant will support a Hawaii-Okinawa energy
leadership program. Both programs will be active in 2022.

2021 OIST Foundation Impact Report

oistfoundation.org

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PHILANTHROPY
88 Keys for OISTOIST brings music to campus to enrich the quality of life forstudents, faculty, and the local community, as well as to explore
connections between music and science. Yet, OIST has neverowned a piano. Instead, when needed, OIST rented the only
piano available on the entire island of Okinawa – a lower quality
instrument.
In response to the need for a world-class piano to attract worldclass performers to OIST, and with the leadership of OISTFoundation Music Ambassador Eiko Kano, we launched the88 Keys Campaign earlier this year to raise funds to purchasea Model B Golden Era Steinway made in 1927 and restored by
Japanese master Mr. Yu Takagi. Mr.Takagi was deeply inspiredby the vision and determination of the campaign when he firstheard about it from Ms. Kano. Out of his incredible generosity,
he offered the piano at a wholesale price, less than a half theretail price. With a major donation of $88,000 from the Ryuji
Ueno Foundation and contributions from other supporters, theFoundation was able to obtain the piano and cover all associatedcosts including transportation and installing a dehumidification
system in the OIST piano storage room.
The piano arrived at OIST on Monday, November 1, and the day
was spent tuning and preparing the piano. The next morning,OIST President and CEO Peter Gruss and Ms. Kano were able toshow the piano to cellist Yo-Yo Ma. That evening, a concert washeld to celebrate the donation. Ms. Kano performed on violinwith Ms. Yuka Oyabu at the piano.

Eiko Kano (violin) andYuka Oyabu (piano)(L-R) Eiko Kano, Yo-Yo
Ma, and Peter Gruss

Dr. Rita R. Colwell

Leveling the Playing Field for WomenOIST is making investments in becoming a role model ingender diversity for Japanese and international educational
institutions worldwide—particularly in the sciences. The
Rita R. Colwell Impact Fund for the Advancement ofWomen in Science, created by the OIST Foundation andsupported by numerous donors, will foster a culture ofdiversity and gender equality on campus, nurturing womenand girls interested in science, and creating opportunities
for women to advance their careers and become leadersin the ﬁeld. Dr. Colwell is a member of OIST’s Board ofGovernors and the first woman director of the National
Science Foundation. We plan to begin making grants fromthe fund in 2022 and look forward to sharing details of
their impact.

2021 OIST Foundation Impact Report“This fund will not only
help more women to fulfill
their aspirations as science
leaders, but will alsoenhance OIST’s ability toserve as a model institutefor gender diversity inthe sciences in Okinawa,
Japan, and beyond.”
Dr. Peter Gruss, OIST
President & CEO

oistfoundation.org

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PROGRAMS
A major part of the Foundation’s work is programming that aligns with OIST’smission, that increasingly shines a spotlight on OIST’s work, and that helps
to cultivate a community of engaged and interested participants. We do thisprimarily through online educational events, and we were pleased in 2021
to have been able to venture into smaller in-person events with strict Covidprotocols for the safety of all attendees.
Webinars Bring OIST to the WorldThis year, the OIST Foundation offered more than 30 webinars. While some were produced
entirely by the Foundation, others were created or sponsored in collaboration with nonprofit
and academic partners.
All webinars are recorded and are available to the public at oistfoundation.org/webinars.
Highlights from the past year include:
The Future of Climate is an ongoing series on environmental conservation and climate change inthe U.S. and Japan. The expert roundtable discussions have focused on coral reefs, hurricanes,
climate innovation, and other relevant topics. These discussions aren’t purely educational—they’ve
also led to a potential partnership between OIST and The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Adaptation
and Resilience Laboratory at Palmyra Atoll. Together, the two organizations can support eachother’s mutual commitments to conservation and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.

BY THE NUMBERS
7 Future of Climate
6 U.S.-Japan Science
5 Co-sponsored webinars
2 Art x Science2 K-12 Outreach
1 Future of Education
As of October 31, 2021

The OIST Foundation and the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research(PICHTR) have formed a new virtual webinar series this year focused on climate and energy related
issues. The PICHTR x OIST series has presented webinars on carbon-negative technology
innovations and international approaches to climate change planning and adaptation.
The U.S.-Japan Science series focuses on topics and people of importance to both countries,
such as astronomy, artificial intelligence, and the science of Covid-19. In February, the series
featured Dr. Keshav Dani, associate professor and head of the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit atOIST. His recent groundbreaking research on dark excitons—invisible particles produced afterphotoexcitation—was published in Science, one of the leading scientific journals in the world.

Building Bridges Between OIST Alumni and Students
What’s life like after graduating from OIST? Current students found out during our Alumni Talks
events, held twice this year. At the first talk, in May, students heard from Dr. Ray Lee, who is now
a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He sharedlessons from his transition from student to postdoc. In July, Dr. Faisal Mahmood spoke withstudents about his journey from OIST to assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Students
have appreciated the first-hand, real-world insights from OIST graduates, and we plan to continue
the series next year.

2021 OIST Foundation Impact Report

oistfoundation.org

4PEOPLENew Ambassadors
Support Vital Foundation Initiatives
The OIST Foundation is honored that the following four individuals
have agreed to serve as ambassadors between their respective fields
and the OIST Foundation to drive strategic partnerships, and creative
collaborations and ideas, and to assist in our content-rich programming.
As Climate and Ocean Ambassador, Dr. Robert
Dunbar will focus on OIST’s coral-related andclimate-related research. Dr. Dunbar is theW.M. Keck Professor of Earth Science at Stanford
University in California.
Education Ambassador Yuko Kakazu, Ph.D.,
astronomer and public outreach specialist for theSubaru Telescope in Hawaii, will lead webinars
for young people in Okinawa and foster a newpartnership between the U.S. Consulate Naha and theOIST Foundation.
Ms. Eiko Kano, violinist and concertmaster ofPegasus: The Orchestra in New York, is our MusicAmbassador. She has been helping connect music
and the arts to science and spearheaded the 88 Keys
Campaign (see page 3).
Health Innovation Ambassador Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita
has spent his life in health care, founded his own
health innovation company, and is deeply engaged
with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, one of the world’s
top health institutions.

OIST Foundation Honors
Consul General Robert Koepcke
In June, the OIST Foundation presented acertificate of commendation to Robert Koepcke,
the U.S. Consul General to Naha, in recognitionof his “support for the mission of the OISTFoundation and for improving U.S.-Japan
relations.” Consul General Koepcke has been
instrumental in helping OIST make beneficial
connections and strongly believes in the power ofOIST to transform Okinawa. We are grateful for
his friendship and dedication.
Future certificates of commendation will beawarded as merited by individuals and institutions
that distinguish themselves in their support for
OIST’s mission and commitment to improving
U.S.-Japan relations.

Jake Shimabukuro
Joins Foundation Board
The OIST Foundation welcomed worldrenowned ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro toour Advisory Board this year. Jake has joined
the OIST Foundation's Education Committeethat is chaired by Dr. Kakazu. With Okinawanroots and a dedication to many issues that
resonate with the OIST Foundation’s mission,
Jake graced us with a private Zoom
performance.

To learn more about the OIST Foundation’s workand upcoming programs, visit oistfoundation.org
or contact us at info@oistfoundation.org or 914-296-4260.
2021 OIST Foundation Impact Report

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