Message from the President

Professor Motoko Kotani, Executive Vice President for Research at Tohoku University, has been elected as President-Elect of the International Science Council (ISC). This is a great pleasure for the Japanese scientific community and gives us hope that Japanese science will contribute to the world even more.

Professor Kotani has already contributed to our activities here at JST. For example, she was the principal investigator of the “Mathematical Challenge to a New Phase of Material Science” project in the “Alliance for Breakthrough between Mathematics and Sciences (ABMS)” research area of our strategic funding program “CREST”. She is also a selection committee member for the “Maria Skłodowska-Curie Award”, which commends early-career Japanese female researchers who are active on the global stage.

The ISC has its origin in the International Research Council (IRC) established in 1919, which was reorganized into the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1931, and into the International Council for Science (ICSU) in 1998. The ISC was established in 2018 by integrating ICSU with the International Council for Science (ISSC). Since 1919 there has been only one Japanese President of the ISC, namely Professor Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, and Professor Kotani will be the second. JST has cooperated with the ISC by co-sponsoring a session at the World Science Forum. We also work closely with them through the Global Research Council (GRC), a collaborative network of research funders from around the world.

“The fact I was elected is testimony to Japan’s contribution to and trust gained from the global science and academic community”, Professor Kotani said. I hope that under Professor Kotani’s ISC leadership, Japan will continue this contribution and bring well-being to people across the world.

October 27, 2021
Hamaguchi Michinari
President
Japan Science and Technology Agency