On 14 March 2012 , a special event was convened at a hotel just off the campus of Kyushu University , Fukuoka , Japan.  The function was two-fold:

(1) Mark the 10^thanniversary of the founding of the Space Environment Research Center (SERC),
and

(2) to inaugurate its successor, the International Center for Space Weather Science and Education (ICSWSE).

Participants of the 14 March 2012 event (photo by T. Uozumi).

Reception Desk -- SERC Anniversary Celebration

In preparation for this special event, a preliminary announcement (click ) was widely distributed towards the end of Year 2011.  It states the agenda for this event – and this agenda was faithfully executed on 14 March 2012 .

The program for this event was written in Japanese
(click ) and in English (click ) and handed out at the Reception Desk ( pictured right ).

The Main Ceremony was kicked off by a Opening Speech by President Arikawa (President of Kyushu University)( pictured left ):

It was an honor to have President Arikawa open the anniversary event for SERC/ICSWSE.

There were two keynote speeches for this event (both were broadcast live on the Internet for those who could not be physically present).  One by Dr T. Doi (the first Japanese astronaut to do a space walk) and one by Dr. H.J. Haubold (UN coordinator for UNBSSI, IHY, ISWI) – both speakers are with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna , Austria .  The titles of their talks are given in the English/Japanese program notes (mentioned in the previous paragraph).  The presentation by Dr Haubold is this (click ).

Dr Doi (yellow necktie) and Dr Haubold (blue necktie); at right is an explanation panel that was erected in the lecture hall.  Dr Haubold is holding a book entitled Selected Papers of MAGDAS for ISWI/MAGDAS School on Litho-Space Weather, which was published by SERC in 2011, and consists of 24 peer-reviewed, MAGDAS-related papers.  It is available from the SERC/ICSWSE website as a 52 MB pdf.

It was also an honor for ICSWSE to have a speech (click ) delivered by Dr. Nat Gopalswamy (President of SCOSTEP) during the main ceremony, shown standing in this photo:

He outlined from his perspective the various accomplishments of Professor Yumoto and his SERC group during the first ten years of SERC.

The celebrative nature of this propitious anniversary gala event on 14 March 2012 can be glimpsed from the following photo sets:

1. (click ) Photo collage (48 photos on one page).

2. (click ) 34 Photos of the Main Ceremony, with captions.

3. (click ) 21 Photos of the Evening Reception.

One special guest from Australia was Dr John Kennewell, who attended this event as the representative of IPS (Ionospheric Predictive Services), which is a part of the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia and looks after most of the MAGDAS network in Australia .

In the photo at left, Dr Kennewell presents
to G. Maeda, representing SERC/ICSWSE, a collection of old photos (click ) that summarizes the research collaboration between Prof. Yumoto and IPS that spanned over two decades.

Albert Einstein arrives at Hakata Railway Station
(of Fukuoka City , Japan ) on 24 December 1922
to start his visit of Kyushu University.

Finally, it is highly noteworthy that

(1) the date of this tenth anniversary event, March 14^th, occurred on the birthday of Albert Einstein, and

(2) this year (2012) is the 90^thanniversary of Albert Einstein’s visit to Kyushu University , where he delivered lectures to enthralled Japanese audiences.

With those two aforementioned points in mind, a special Einstein event was organized by ICSWSE: Remembering Einstein (click ).  It was held in the Backroom of SERC/ICSWSE and the public was widely invited using the event flyer (see previous pdf).

The highlight of this celebratory event on 15 March 2012 was a talk by guest-speaker Dr. Hans J. Haubold of UNOOSA.  Afterwards, there was a discussion session, an Einstein birthday cake was cut, coffee was served, and a group photo was taken for posterity’s sake.  (Many thanks to Dr Haubold for his fine talk.)

From left:  Hans in action-------------a big cake for AE-------------photo of participants.

For more photos of this Einstein Birthday event, click .

Shown at left is a blackboard that AE used during his lectures at Kyushu University in 1922.  It is said that his blackboard was never erased and is still somewhere in deep storage in Fukuoka (maybe).  ICSWSE plans to commence a vigorous search operation for this mysterious blackboard in preparation for celebrating AE’s 100^thanniversary of his visit to Kyushu University ; this anniversary occurs in 2022.  The blackboard must be somewhere around here!

If you have any information regarding Einstein’s visit to Kyushu University in 1922, please contact the main office of ICSWSE at +81-92-642-4403, and ask for Ms. Kayo Goto (speaks English and Japanese).  Any kind of info, no matter how small, would be appreciated.