UoA Faculty Members Receive Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for AY2015

UoA faculty members report reception of Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for AY2015 [April 16, 2015]
On Thursday, April 16, 2015, UoA faculty members reported their reception of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for AY2015 to President Oka. The members who were commended are Senior Associate Professors Demura and Hirata, and Associate Professors Okudaira, Ogawa, and Terazono. Their comments are described as below.

Senior Associate Professor Demura:
I really appreciate that the quiet and volunteer efforts of CAIST/ARC-Space have been recognized. I don't think we could have offered the number of events and activities that we did without the understanding and cooperation of the UoA Administrative Office and our fellow faculty members. Although this award only recognizes five individuals, other ARC-Space faculty members continue to work on many Science Cafe, lectures, and other activities mostly for the people of Fukushima while engaged in their primary duties of research and education. We are really glad to dedicate ourselves for the following achievements; (1) "HAYABUSA" Project: Deep space exploration mission with many difficulties, (2) Projects with companies in Fukushima, (3) Encouraging more people and students to learn about lunar and planetary science, (4) Becoming part of establishment of "Aizu Sora no Kai (Aizu Astronomy Society)"
We hope that we will be able to cheer up the people of Fukushima and contribute to motivating them to learn about math and science.

Associate Professor Okudaira:
I feel that this award is thanks to all of the many people who were involved in our Science Cafe and lectures, especially the audience members. I would like to take the opportunity to thank them.
Coincidentally, "TANPOPO" (Astrobiology Exposure and Micrometeoroid Capture Experiments), which we have been involved with for a long time, was successfully launched early in the morning on the day of the commendation ceremony. From now on I want to get back to basics and work hard on what I can do

Associate Professor Ogawa:
Thank you for having me at this ceremony. I will keep working hard to encourage young people to get interested in planetary exploration and science by introducing the latest in the field of space and planetary informatics research through off-campus lectures at junior and high schools.

Associate Professor Terazono:
I don't think I was able to receive this award by myself. This award is a result of whole ARC-Space's achievements and fruit of efforts by the UoA including the Administrative Office.
"Space" let us feel romance, but it is actually full of complicated technical terms. Therefore, we couldn't smoothly start contributing to local community with this difficult theme. However, Japanese lunar and planetary exploration missions like "HAYABUSA" and "KAGUYA" encouraged us to tell public about attractiveness of space research and development through lectures, Science Cafe events, off-campus lecture and public lectures for students while making trials and errors. It's more than my pleasure if our efforts would be more or less helpful for people who are under the post-earthquake hardship in Aizu and Fukushima Prefecture. Then "HAYABUSA 2" keeps promoting space research and development now. We will continue our contribution to the local community in the way of promoting leading-edge research and discovery so as to earn recognition of "Fukushima is on the frontline of space."

Senior Associate Professor Hirata:
Public outreach is an activity which needs people on the receiving end, so in that sense it is different from general research, which is something that we can do by ourselves. Therefore, we will strive to be more creative with our research and how we convey it to the people on the receiving end, namely students and the local population, to get them interested in our research.

Commendation certificate (Left), Plaque (Right)