MIRAI Archive
京都⼤学未来創成学国際研究ユニット

No.2015-002-E

International Research Unit of Advanced Future Studies(IRU-AFS)＜ Greeting＞

Kyoto University, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics
The Symposium Commemorating Opening of the Kyoto University,
International Research Unit of Advanced Future Studies
Date

August 6 th 2015（Thu）18：00－18：18

VenueSpeaker

COOP-INN Kyoto 202
Misao Sasaki（the Director, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics,
Kyoto University）

Greetings from Misao Sasaki, the director
Good evening, I’m Misao Sasaki. In the past, I was not actively
involved in Advanced Future Studies, but in the last six months Ihave listened to many of Professor Masatoshi Murase’s talks andnow I am a big fan.

Thanks to him, I had the opportunity to talk today. “Improve the cross-talk between scientificfields” is the idea behind Advanced Future Studies. It was born from a few conversations
between people in internal research institutes/centers, and we were able to successfully advancethe project by adopting what Professor Murase told us. The project involves

four graduate

schools out of 15 and the majority of the research institutes/centers. Each research institute has
its own unique aspect and they are completely different from each other. For example, at theResearch Institute for Mathematical Sciences (RIMS), they study pure mathematics. There arevarious other institutes including Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto
Institute of Economic Research (KIER), Kokoro Research Center, the Center for EcologicalResearch and Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.

The fields covered by this program are broad, and the technical terms used in each institute vary.
Therefore, I’d like to start the project by filling in the gaps in the language. I appreciate thekindness of President Juichi Yamagiwa for providing us with both time and funds. I’d like tomake the best use of them to bring people closer over the course of the first two to three years. I1

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believe that this way, we will gradually be able to create some new ideas.
Advanced Future Studies is a part of an organization called the Kyoto University Research
Coordination Alliance. Both organizations aim to investigate and probe into frontiers such as thecreation of new, untrodden fields. An organization called the “Research coordination platform”
manages all the units in the Kyoto University Research Coordination Alliance. Mr. Naoto
Oshiman, the foundation leader, once told us that he would be taking responsibility for theactivities of the alliance. To put it in his words, he said “If we can make one or two things
relatively successful I would not mind even if everything else failed”. Once again, he says, hewill be responsible for our failures.

We will have to step into the new world with this kind of determination. As President Juichi
Yamagiwa also told us earlier, this is a tradition of Kyoto University. I will be brave and try toforge ahead. I ask for the cooperation of not only those working for Kyoto University but also
people here in all of the various organizations and departments. With all of you, I hope to createa paradigm shift. Forgetting about modesty for a moment, I’d like to say that I hope this shift
has an influence over not just Kyoto, but across Japan and the rest of the world. Thank you.

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