Chile-Japan Academic Forum at UTokyo, allowed to exchange experiences, advances and challenges in different disciplines of knowledge. The activity was conducted in response to the meeting held in November last year at Universidad Católica and Universidad de Chile.
Between October 6th and 9th, the Chile-Japan Academic Forum at UTokyo was held. This event was organized jointly by the Universidad de Chile, the Universidad Católica and the University of Tokyo, and was held at the Hongo Campus of this institution, located in the heart of the city of Tokyo, Japan. The meeting was attended by 12 professors from various academic units (Economics, Urban Studies, Engineering, Chemistry, Geography and Campus Villarica) and was chaired by the Vice-Rector for Research, Juan Larraín. The participation of the president of CONICYT, Francisco Brieva and Universidad de Chile’s PResident, Ennio Vivaldi, also stood out.
University of Tokyo is the best university in Japan and one of the best in the world. Last year, as part of its internationalization strategy, it held the UTokyo Forum at UC, an activity that brought together more than 100 professors, who participated in plenary conferences and symposia in the most diverse areas of knowledge. With this, it was sought to link academics from both universities to generate collaborative research and promote student exchange.
This year and with the aim of continuing to advance in collaboration, this group of professors visited the University of Tokyo, where they participated in a series of symposia on Sustainable Urban Development issues; Asian Studies; Electrochemistry; Biomedical engineering; Earth Sciences-Seismology; Information technologies; Geo-Mining Metallurgy; Science and History; Biological Sciences; Astronomy and Biology, among others.
The work agenda also included the visit of the Chilean delegation to the Rinkai Park for Disaster Prevention in Tokyo, being able to learn about the central base of operations for disaster prevention in this city, a topic of high interest among Chilean researchers. considering the seismic characteristics of Chile.
Links of trust
The activity concluded with a ceremony attended by university authorities and the Chilean ambassador to Japan, Patricio Torres. All emphasized the importance of holding this type of event that allows strengthening academic relations between both nations and, of course, advancing and promoting research in the different disciplines of knowledge.
At the closing of the meeting, the keynote lecture by UC Pablo Irarrázaval with the theme “Biomedical Images for People” stood out.
In the words of the Vice-President for Research Affairs, “with this visit we finished a first stage of generating ties and trust between both institutions, and of ensuring that our academics find topics of common interest with their peers in the Asian country.” Likewise, Larraín participated in bilateral meetings with the president and vice president of the University of Tokyo, which allowed us to discuss how to advance to a new stage in this relationship in joint research projects and student exchange.
The Vice-President reported that in the coming weeks the University of Tokyo will invite its academics to present research projects with international peers, which may be financed with the new strategic partnership program that the Japanese university will begin to develop with funds from the Ministry of Education. “The good news is that UC is considered one of the strategic partners for this new program and represents a great opportunity for collaborations.”
The UC delegation was made up of Jonathan Barton and Gonzalo Salazar from Estudios Urbanos; Raimundo Soto of Economy; Mauricio Isaacs of Chemistry; Johannes Rehner, from Geography; Juan Armijo of Chemistry; Diego Celentano, Christian Ledezma, Álvaro Soto, Franco Pedreschi, and Pablo Irarrázaval, the last five from the Faculty of Engineering.