Hiroshi Matsumoto, 25th President of Kyoto University
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today. As the president of Kyoto University, I am most proud to be welcoming all of you to Kyoto at her most bright and vivid season!
As we all know, the APRU is a unique union to have embraced as many as 42 universities in the Pacific Rim, with the goal to deepen our mutual understanding and cooperative relations among member universities. The issues that deserve our special attention include economic development, urbanization, technology transfer, as well as climate change and ecosystem problems, and should be discussed from the perspective of contributions that can be made through academia. (We are all here today, especially to look forward to some discovery and proposal for a better future.)
The Doctoral Students Conference, in particular, is focused on cultivating the next generation leaders of our region to be visionaries, by providing opportunities to gain experiences in the international arena. With this mission, the 10th Conference is upon us, bearing the attractive theme of "Promoting Originality and Diversity in Research". I truly hope that every one of us here will maximize this opportunity to share and debate ideas and thoughts from all angles, so that by the end of this event, we will harvest together results that which are extremely diverse and constructive.
Since the theme is quite representative of the academic style at our University, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a little bit about Kyoto University. Our university celebrated its 112th anniversary on June 18th. Since its very foundation, a 'free thinking' style and emphasis in dialogues has been the main spirit. This is also greatly influenced by the fact that the city of Kyoto is located a fair distance away from the capital city of Tokyo and has therefore maintained an autonomous character of development. It is hence natural to identify our spirit as "Original" and "Diverse". Prof. Toshihide Maskawa illustrates my point, as his originality has been highly regarded and was awarded with the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physics, and has been an encouragement to all the scholars and students who have passed through our university.
Two of my outstanding colleagues who have been involved in particularly innovative work in their respective fields, will be sharing their understanding and experience at this conference. The opening lecture will be given by Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa. Prof. Matsuzawa is an authority in primate research and animal intelligence in Japan. He obtained a PhD in science, although he also possesses a background in philosophical thinking and research. With the advantage of this multi-disciplinary background, his research has been a vivid example of the value of diversity in research. Our second guest, Prof. Shin Kubota, will be giving a closing lecture on Friday. He is respected as a leading scholar in the biological studies of the 'immortal' Turritopsis nutricula – a species of hydrozoa, a relative of jellyfish. His research takes advantage of the geography where he is based, at the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory in the prefecture of Wakayama, which is an area of the inland sea where subtropical and temporal marine organisms intermingle. I believe that you will come to understand more about the academic style of free thinking at Kyoto University after their lectures. In the meantime, I hope this will prove to be an opportunity to reflect on your own research, and to think of ways to expand your work.
As for myself, it was back in 1970s when I attended my first international academic conference during the course of my PhD, and the experience proved invaluable. To this day, I still keep in touch with many of those who were there. I hope that your international network building will get off to a fruitful start. When you are at the early stages of a career, it is an invaluable to meet a broad range of scholars and to build a well balanced world view. I assure you that such connections will remain influential in your future.
Here, I would also like to shed light on the special workshop. This is a very interesting session prepared for you by the committee members, and will give you the opportunity to simulate the transfer ideas that have been inspired from the rest of the conference, into reality. It is scheduled to be held on the first and the last day of the conference, with the discussion theme will be "creating a better support network and research environment –ideas to innovate universities.". I expect that it will be a highly motivating experience, and I look forward to witnessing the development of your contributions.
To conclude, looking at the program, I believe your time here will be fruitful with a good mixture of presentations from a wide spectrum of individuals, to be combined with your own original intellect. It is my personal wish that all of you will not only benefit from the academic discussion, but also have a great time in Kyoto together with the new friends you will be meeting. July is indeed the most charming time for you to take in the beauty of Kyoto. The whole month of July is filled with festivities connected to the popular Gion Matsuri - an expression of the 1000-year culture of Kyoto. Our conference committee members have been preparing opportunities to experience this exciting cultural aspect of our country as well.
With anticipation, I hope that we will be able to work together to make the next five days a rich and momentous occasion!
Thank you very much!