1. Greeting of Director

 

    A most important mission of the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) is to promote advanced research in the field of solid earth sciences, especially on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and to make a breakthrough in the understanding of these phenomena. It is of critical importance for the accomplishment of the mission to draw up novel research projects, and carry out them systematically. Such efforts are now being done based on vigorous discussion in the institute. It is also required  for an accurate understanding of earthquake occurrence and volcanic eruption to obtain and accumulate a variety of precise geophysical data for a long time period. The scale of the observation depends on the objective of research; it must be global-scale when we try to investigate the global dynamics of the earth. Close cooperation with many researchers in and outside the country is essential to carry out such observation studies. As a "Shared Institute of Japanese Universities", ERI continues to make an effort to promote close collaboration among related researchers over the nation.    .

ERI is also recognized as a core institute for the research of earthquake prediction and volcanic eruption prediction, and we are promoting the prediction research cooperatively with related researchers over the nation. While new research program is expected to start at 2004 in each prediction project, each national university is supposed to be transformed into a body corporate at the same year. While it is unclear how collaboration among researchers belonging to different national universities is carried out in this new system, we will continue to contribute to the development of earth sciences in collaboration with researchers throughout the nation.

    Faculty members of ERI are actively involved in the education of graduate students at the University of Tokyo. ERI is characterized by advanced field and laboratory researches. Graduate students at ERI could feel a "breath" of the Earth, joining such research programs. We will continue to promote education characterized by the above features in collaboration with graduate schools of the University of Tokyo.

   It is also an important mission of ERI to open to the public the outcome of research activity on earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and disaster mitigation related to these phenomena. We will continue to make efforts to promote outreach activity.

 

Director  Prof. Teruo YAMASHITA