Prof. Tani and Prof. Trukhin shaking hands upon signing the Memorundum

LIAISON OFFICE NEWSLETTER
October 9^th, 2001     No.1

The Establishment of the Liaison Offices between Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Japan and Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, Russia

Purpose

On September 19, 2001, Prof. J. Tani, Director of Institute of Fluid Science, and Prof. V. Trukhin, Dean of Faculty of Physics, signed Memorandum on Organization of the Liaison Office between Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Japan and Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, Russia. This office is created in order to effectively expand collaboration between two institutions, to organize and implement an academic network linking Tohoku University to research universities and institutions in Russia, and to provoke the exchange of researchers, academic staff and students.
In 1998 Tohoku University signed an Academic agreement on student exchange with Moscow State University, but still the number of Russian graduate and post-graduate students in Tohoku University is very small. One of the purposes of the Liaison Office will be to enlarge this number.

History

On August 20 and 21, 2000, the Sendai Executive Forum on Inter-University Exchange hosted by Tohoku University was convened in Sendai as part of the International Symposium on Research and Education in the 21st Century: The Role of Inter-University Academic and Student Exchange? (ISRE 2000). Special issue sessions were held to discuss the organization of global networks among universities, regional exchange, policies for the promotion of international and regional collaborative research, and the problems and possibilities raised by the expanding temporal and spatial scope of research and education.
In fulfillment of the decisions of the ISRE 2000, Tohoku University issued a Declaration, in which it resolved to take the immediate steps to implement academic and educational exchanges to the fullest extent possible. The establishment of the Liaison Office in Moscow State University is supposed to be one of the first steps, taken under this Declaration.

Prospects

For Tohoku University the present Liaison office is the first out growth of ISRE-2000 with the goals stated above, so it was decided to start from the faculty-to-faculty level, aiming at close collaboration and high mobility. Institute of Fluid Science and Faculty of Physics were chosen to be the initiators of mutual work as these departments play one of the important roles in exchange between two universities. However, the present form of the liaison Office does not exclude the researchers of fields other than two departments cover.
This agreement is supposed to be only the first step of mutual collaboration between two institutions. Very soon, allegedly in March of 2002, the authorities of two organizations plan to raise collaboration to university-to-university level. It is also suggested that later Moscow State University should open its office in Tohoku University.
It was decided to start with joint research projects between two universities and then to extend collaboration to academic staff and graduate students. The Liaison office will also introduce the activities of the research institute in Russia to Tohoku University.

Organization

The Liaison Office will be placed in the Low-Temperature Physics Department of Faculty of Physics. It will be managed by the Joint Advisory Council, consisting of the members of Institute of Fluid Science and Faculty of Physics. The Bylaw of the Liaison Office Joint Advisory Council was adopted on September 21, 2001. The post of the Chairman of the Council will be held by Director of Institute of Fluid Science.
The day-to-day work will be done by specially hired staff. At first all the contacts will go through this staff and then go down to professor-to-professor level. Only in this case the mutual work can be effective and fruitful.
It is also planned to make a homepage of the Liaison Office, where update of the mutual collaboration will appear.

Edited by Vera VASIL'EVA


URL addresses concerning the contents of this newsletter:
http://www.eng.tohoku.ac.jp/ISRE2000/
http://www.ifs.tohoku.ac.jp/
http://web.bureau.tohoku.ac.jp/international/
http://www.tohoku.ac.jp/index-e.html