Mission Statement
Prof. Takehiko Satoh for the position of AOGS President
This 20th anniversary year of AOGS is, needless to say, a remarkable milestone for the society. The society has
steadily grown up by engaging researchers in geosciences, space and planetary sciences, as well as general publicfrom countries primarily in Asia and Oceania but not limited to. Just before this celebration year, however, we werein many aspects severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 meeting was canceled, and 2021 and 2022
meetings were held but fully on-line). Not just recovering from the pandemic-affected years, the society should makethis an opportunity to change by learning lots from those difficult moments, bringing us to a higher stage with moreresilience against changes in circumstances and more engaged together. I have a great optimism to achieve suchchanges with the council, and members of the society. Fortunately, we maintain our strong hopes and enthusiasms topromote geosciences in Asia, Oceania, and the world, as you all witness at this 20th anniversary year meeting. Inaddition to this good uninterrupted momentum, I plan to introduce new features to AOGS.
The first thing is to encourage “working group” activities to closely discuss and exchange information/knowledges
under certain themes. In fact, we once had a working group for “micro- nano-satellite constellation sciences” but it
faded out because the goals were not very clear and there was not solid consensus how we maximize the outcome
from such activities. These group activities should be like organs in a human body, when properly functioning, as awhole supporting the body (the society) healthy. If elected, I will establish a better-planned scheme to enable fruitfulgroup activities in AOGS.
The second thing is to create more opportunities to hear from members of the society. Before the pandemic, thegeneral assembly during the opening ceremony of the annual meeting was almost the only occasion the council
receives voices of the members. During the pandemic, we had a few on-line townhall meetings in which I saw new
possibilities that could engage the members and the society much stronger. Just like working groups are organs,individual members are cells and blood. All collaborate to maintain the good health of the body in which everybody
enjoys the science.
The above two are for the internal of AOGS. To the outside, of course, we have relationships with other scientificsocieties. Each society is basically independent but sometimes cooperates or compliments with each other. Whilemaintaining existing good partnerships, I will extend it especially to emerging/developing societies in Asia Oceaniaregion. Helping such societies to grow up would eventually benefit ourselves, a regional-scale society. For this, wealready have the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) and satellite meeting options in AOGS so these mechanisms
should be further reinforced.
The long history of AOGS implies that people get older (personally, I became 60 last year) and proper metabolism isessential. The structure of the society also needs to be updated so it will be more robust and sustainable for coming
decades. It takes as much time and effort not to become outdated as to establish a new thing. If elected, I will mobilize
all of my skills and knowledges acquired through years in the council (as ST Section’s President, Secretary General,and Assistant Secretary General) to hand over the society to the next generation in its best-ever shape.