2nd Joint Advisory Council Meeting was held at Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University on December 5th, 2001

LIAISON OFFICE NEWSLETTER
February 16^th, 2002     No.2

The prospects of collaboration of Tohoku University, Japan and Moscow State University, Russia

In November 2001 the Rector of the Moscow State University Academician Sadovnichii paid a visit to Tokyo, where he met with the President of the Tohoku University Professor Abe. They discussed the prospects of collaboration of the two universities and expressed their satisfaction of the idea of the establishment of the Liaison Office between the two institutions on the university-to-university level. It was agreed that some of the channels of mutual work were not used in full, such as the student exchange and realization of joint projects. The agreement on student exchange between the two universities was signed in 1998, but it wasn't put into effect. Only with the establishment of the Liaison Office this agreement took real force. It was decided to leave the concrete measures to be worked out at the Liaison Office Joint Advisory Council meeting.

The Presidents of the two universities agreed to meet once again in Moscow (allegedly in June 2002) to discuss the attained results of collaboration and in case of successful mutual work to establish the Liaison Office at the university-to-university level.

The Liaison Office Joint Advisory Council meeting took place in the Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, on December 5. The Director of the Institute of Fluid Science Prof. Tani took the chair.

The council discussed the plans for collaborative research projects. By now there is only one working joint project - the one of Prof. Takagi (Tohoku University) and Prof. Vasiliev (Moscow State University). It is called "Magnetically driven shape-memory effect and colossal magnetostriction in Ni2MnGa-based Heusler alloys". The mutual work of Prof. Takagi and Prof. Vasiliev was established long before the opening of the Liaison Office and became a kind of a basis for the future collaboration of the two institutions.

But now some new joint projects are discussed, such as the possibility of Prof. Sysoev's fire extinguish device research project collaborated with Prof. Maruyama, and some others. It was decided to invite several Japanese scientists to Moscow so that they can establish contacts with their Russian colleages, working on the same problems. In March 2002 Prof. Motokawa, Dr. Luo and Dr. Uchimoto plan to visit the Moscow State University to launch new joint research projects.

The other question, discussed at the Joint Advisory Council, was exchanging students in cultural programs. In Academic Year 2002-2003 several students of the Moscow State University plan to take part in Tohoku University Junior Year Program.

The prospects of the visit of President Abe to Moscow State University were also talked over and it was considered reasonable to arrange it during the conference that will take place in Moscow in June 2002 and on which the members of the council will be also present. But the detailed schedule will be adjusted after deliberations.

Edited by Vera VASIL'EVA