|
 |
| |
|
| Dr. Kozo Ninomiya, Senior Scientist of the
Global Warming Research Program received "the Order of the
Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star" from the government
of Japan at the conferment of medals in Nov 2005. This award
is given to the person who devoted to the public duties over
the years. His receiving is based upon his longtime great
contributions as Director-General of the Japan Meteorological
Agency (JMA). Here is the message from Dr. Ninomiya. It is
my great honor to be conferred "the Order of the Sacred Treasure,
Gold and Silver Star" from the government of Japan last November,
mainly for the longtime contributions in the JMA. I understand
that this was not only appreciated for my personal accomplishments,
but also for the contributions of whole JMA activities toward
the nation and public. Last May, I received the Fujiwara Prize
from the Meteorological Society of Japan. I recognized that
it was also for our research group. |
| I worked for more than
30 years in JMA. During the first 20 years, I participated
in the research and development at the Meteorological
Research Institute and the Numerical Prediction Division
and in the last 10 years, I took part in management
positions. After the retirement from JMA, fortunately,
I had opportunities to participate in the Center for
Climate System Research, University of Tokyo and the
FRCGC. I would like to express my sincere thanks for
many friends and colleagues for various supports during
my whole career. I have a personal dream to compile
meteorological documents such as "Extreme Snow Storms
of Japan in 20th Century" and "Extreme Rain Storms in
Japan in 20th Century" in the future as a nonprofessional
meteorologist. I would like to ask the FRCGC for its
continuous support such as the permission of using various
data sources. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is now three months since I
was elected as a member of the Japan Academy. It is truly
a great honor for me and I would like to serve as a member
for the progress of science. I think that most of the readers
might know little about the Japan Academy, so let me explain.
The Japan Academy is basically the same as academies in other
countries: An institution consists from the most authoritative
individuals in all disciplines of science. Here "science"
spans a wide range; humanites, social science, basic natural
science and applied natural science which includes engineering,
agricultural and medical sciences.
As to the functions or standing in society, however, the Japan
Academy does little to influence the government or send messages
to society on the basis of its expertise and authority in
contrast to that many of the academies of other countries
play important roles in this aspect. For example, the National
Academy of Science of the US issued a report on global warming
in 1979, the first official message on the problem from scientific
authorities. The late Professor Jule G. Charney, the world's
top leader in meteorology at that time worked as the chair
of the committee. By the way, the temperature rise under the
doubled CO2 condition was estimated to be 3±1.5°C
which still remains unchanged!
The major activities of the Academy is to award the Academy
Prize, publication of the Proceedings and international cooperation
with academies of other countries. Japan Academy Prize is
regarded as the most prestigious in all scientific disciplines
in Japan and therefore selection of awardee is the most important
work. Every year around 8 individuals with distinguished achievements
in respective disciplines are awarded.
As other academies, the Japan Academy publishes "Proceedings of the Japan Academy". Traditionally in western countries where
academies were founded long time ago, articles in the Proceedings have been regarded as the most prestigious because it is the
proceedings of the meeting where the most authoritative scientists attend and the paper was read and evaluated there. Nowadays they
are no longer prestigious as before though still some retain high standards. In the case of the Japan Academy, the editorial policy follows y,
the tradition. A member introduces articles and reports the member's evaluation in monthly meetings. By approval of the attending
members, the articles are published. Unfortunately, proceedings of the Academy is not so widely known. However, because of the special
editorial policy, in such cases where a researcher likes to publish very unique theory or findings but has difficulty in publication in ordinary
journals, it can be published in the Proceedings if the researcher succeeds to convince a member that the work is worthy to be published.
It has been only three months as a member of Academy, so I am still learning about everything. I would like to work in someway in
response to the given honor. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
