GSAIS and University of Arizona's Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences become academic exchange partners (15 February 2018)

發表日期

2018/06/05

On 15 February, the Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (GSAIS, or "Shishu-Kan") concluded an academic exchange agreement with the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (HAS) at the University of Arizona (UA).

The signing took place at UA, with Professor Yosuke Yamashiki representing GSAIS. He was joined from Kyoto by Program-Specific Professor Takao Doi of the Unit of Synergetic Studies for Space (USSS, or "Space Unit"), who was visiting UA as part of his "basic research on the utility of timber resources in space" project, funded by Kyoto University under its SPIRITS (Supporting Program for Interaction-based Initiative Team Studies) grant program. With Professor Doi attending, the meeting yielded a USSS-HAS research collaboration agreement in addition to the GSAIS-HAS partnership.

UA is the world's only university conducting comprehensive research on the hydrology of other planets. It is also known for its involvement in the Mars rover mission, and as the operator of Biosphere 2, the site of the first-ever closed life support human experiment. A plan is currently underway to use the facility as a venue for a KyotoU seminar on "human universology" ( yujin uchu-gaku ), a study of technological and other requirements for sustainable human existence outside of the Earth's environment.

Since 2012, numerous KyotoU graduate students have studied at HAS to learn about the "shuffled complex evolution method (SCE-UA)", developed by UA Professor Hoshin V Gupta.

One current GSAIS student, Ryusuke Kuroki, is now studying at UA as part of a USSS early-career researcher training program, having arrived at the university in July 2017.