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***Japan Geoscience Union Mailnews April Issue
No.337 April 15, 2020***
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<< Contents >>
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| 1. 2020 Joint Meeting by Hodaka Kawahata, President of JpGU
| 2. Important notice regarding the Joint Meeting 2020
| 3. New JpGU Fellows and “Miyake Prize” Awardees
| 4. From Committees
| -> Japan Earth Science Olympiad Committee
| 5. Information from PEPS
| -> Submission deadline for SPEPS collections extended to 2020/6/30
| -> Latest Articles
| 6. What’s new
| -> Event Information
| -> Career Opportunity
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#1. 2020 Joint Meeting by Hodaka Kawahata, President of JpGU
Aiming to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19),
the Japanese Government declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and 6
prefectures on April 8. As a measure to avoid the “three Cs (Confined
spaces, Crowded places, and Close contacts)” that lead to further
spread of the virus, we are requested to refrain from going out, to
close down universities and research institutes, and to adopt telework;
it is not clear when our daily lives can return to normalcy. The JpGU
Office is currently operating using telework. We apologize for the
inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Against this backdrop caused by the global spread of the new type of
coronavirus, and in consideration of the safety of the participants,
the JpGU Board of Directors decided on March 24 to move the planned
on-site JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2020 to an online format. Holding this
virtual meeting will allow us to maintain our goals to “continue
advancing Earth and planetary science” and “provide young researchers
with opportunities to make presentations.”
(https://www.jpgu.org/en/news/2020/2482/ )
We conducted a community survey during the second week of April to
gather information on the expectations and wishes of potential
attendees for our first trial of a major “online event”. We received
many responses in a short time (1623 responses from ~13,400 JpGU ID
holders), and we are deeply grateful to the community for your
cooperation. Here we briefly summarize the survey results.
(1) 85% of the respondents were those who had their abstracts accepted.
Respondents from higher education institutions and national research
and development institutes constituted 58%. Postdocs and graduate
students accounted for 31%, and the residential area distribution was
93% in Asia, including Japan, and 4% in North America. (2) Regarding
the desirable time window of the presentations, we did not find any
particularly clear trends. (3) For those who were assigned oral
presenters, 53 % preferred online oral presentations, 27% preferred
to move to posters, the remaining others preferred to withdraw their
presentation. (4) 70% who do not have scheduled presentations showed
interest in participation. (5) About half gave positive responses to
the idea of joining in discussion with the presenters using an online
tool. However, 35% said use of the discussion tool was not a priority.
(6) With regard to the Outstanding Student Presentation Award, 47%
replied that they thought they would be unable to make a fair judgement.
(7) Other important comments included recommendations to allocate
more time for preparation to cope with the major change from an onsite
to an online format, and a request to consider the changes of university
teaching to online classes meaning that the many academics will be
very busy during the month of May. There were also some comments
suggesting it would be preferable to cancel the meeting in view of
the spread of COVID-19.
An “JpGU Ad-hoc Board of Directors Meeting” was held on April 10, to
discuss the future directions based on the results of the survey and
the current state of affairs. As a result the following decisions
were made.
(1) All fees paid such as registration fees for the meeting and
welcome party will be fully refunded (please allow for processing
time at credit card companies).
(2) Since there are various expenses involved in the processing of
abstracts, it is not possible to reimburse the abstract submission
fee, nor the annual membership fee.
(3) We will make our best efforts to prepare for the online meeting
and make the experience as rewarding as possible for the participants.
We will provide instruction manuals on how to best use our online
platform and offer dry run exercises before the meeting.
Based on the above considerations, the following decisions were also
made.
(4) The Joint Meeting will be postponed for 7 weeks and will be held
from 12 July (Sun) to 16 July (Thu).
(5) We are preparing the various tools needed to facilitate the online
meeting. However, we are yet to decide on the specific presentation
formats that will be adopted and made available. We will refer to the
community survey and discuss among relevant committees (Meeting
Organizing Com and Program Com), conveners and authors to develop an
appropriate framework and then make a general announcement. We will
try to anticipate various possible problems and plan appropriate
countermeasures.
(6) The meeting is scheduled to be held for 5 days, but as we expect
many participants may prefer to take part only for a relatively short
time each day of the meeting, we have decided to set the new
registration fee for the online meeting equal to the onsite
early-bird 1-day rate.
(7) The overwhelming opinion from the survey was that OSPA is
“difficult to implement” in its current form, and there will be no
OSPA this year. However, we are considering alternative plans that
offer rewards for student presentation efforts.
This change to an “online scientific meeting” plan was born of
necessity due to the spread of the novel coronavirus disease.
However, “online classes” are already popular in Japan for studying
for various vocational qualification tests. Now, many universities
seem to be following this trajectory by moving classes online. It
seems clear that “online exchange of knowledge” will become even
more important in the future. In Europe, carbon offsets are encouraged
in academic societies because they contribute to reducing carbon
dioxide emissions (and, as a result, no travel costs). Next year, it
may be possible for overseas researchers to interact with one another
through “online presentations and discussions” at an “academic forum”.
We would like to take this opportunity to promote the online
technological development for our society and work to towards refining
the form best suited to the new “online meeting”.
The spread of the infectious disease that we are currently experiencing
is the largest in Japan since the war. The current policy of the
Japanese Government to prevent this expansion, is not through
compulsory legislation, but by requesting citizens’ self-control
supported by awareness of the scientific issues. The change to
telework and social distancing undoubtedly leads to additional
stresses, but I strongly hope that we will overcome these difficulties,
find ways out of the current situation, and return soon to a normal
peaceful world.
We have decided to move our annual meeting to an online meeting for
the first time. I believe this will add to our assets for our future.
We sincerely ask for your support, cooperation and participation,
which will define the success of this meeting.
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#2. Important notice regarding the Joint Meeting 2020
As detailed in the above explanation by JpGU President Hodaka Kawahata
on the latest decisions made for the Joint Meeting 2020, the main
points in excerpts are below.
(1) All fees paid such as registration fees for the meeting and welcome
party will be fully refunded.
(2) Since there are various expenses involved in the processing of
abstracts, it is not possible to reimburse the abstract submission fee.
(3) We will make our best efforts to prepare for the online meeting
and make the experience as rewarding as possible for the participants.
We will provide instruction manuals on how to best use our online
platform and offer dry run exercises before the meeting.
(4) The Joint Meeting will be postponed for 7 weeks and will be held
from 12 July (Sun) to 16 July (Thu).
(5) The details on the presentation formats are under development.
(6) The new registration fee is set equal to our early-bird 1-day
rate to allow your full access to the whole meeting.
(7) OSPA judging will not take place. We are considering alternative
plans that offer rewards for student presentation efforts.
We will inform you on how to register and in what formats to
participate as we move along in our careful planning for the online
meeting in the coming weeks. We plan to provide further information
next before early May (Golden Week in Japan).
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#3. New JpGU Fellows and “Miyake Prize” Awardees
JpGU is pleased to announce the new JpGU Fellows and Awardees of the
Japan Geoscience Union “Miyake Prize.”
The award ceremony will be announced as soon as it is decided.
**2020 JpGU Fellows**
In alphabetical order of surnames and with titles omitted, the new
fellows are:
Natsuo Sato, Mitsuo Uematsu, and Hisayoshi Yurimoto.
Further details given on the following website
https://www.jpgu.org/en/jpgufellow/
**2020 Japan Geoscience Union Scientific Award “Miyake Prize” Awardees**
The research achievements of the candidates for this year’s Miyake
Prize were outstanding and in agreement with the board of directors,
Article 3 of the rules governing the Miyake Prize selection was
changed to read “One candidate should be selected per year for the
prize unless there are exceptional circumstances”, and it was agreed
that this year 2 candidates should receive the prize.
In alphabetical order of surnames and with titles omitted the
awardees are:
Akira Kouchi and Naohiro Yoshida.
Further details are given on the following website
https://www.jpgu.org/en/miyakeprize/
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#4. From Committees
(1) Japan Earth Science Olympiad Committee
The 14th International Science Olympiad, scheduled to be held from
August 16, has been canceled due to the COVID-19 spread.
Due to this, the final selection of candidates was also canceled.
The committee is planning to hold an event for the contestants when
the situation gets better.
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#5. Information from PEPS
(1) Submission deadline for SPEPS collections extended to 2020/6/30
The submission deadlines for following SPEPS collections have been
extended until 2020/6/30.
@. “Quaternary and Future Earth: Harmonious Coexistence of Climate
and Humans”
@. “Variability of the Sun and Its Terrestrial Impact – VarSITI- 5-year
summary review”
(2) Latest Articles
The following articles were published. You can download and read
interesting articles from the PEPS web site at:
https://progearthplanetsci.springeropen.com/
@. Hiroaki Kawase et al.: Changes in extremely heavy and light
snow-cover winters due to global warming over high mountainous.
@. Reid A. Parsons et al.: Cold-based glaciation of Pavonis Mons, Mars:
evidence for moraine deposition during glacial advance.
@. Michael R. Ackerson et al.: 29Si solid state NMR and Ti K-edge
XAFS pre-edge spectroscopy reveal complex behavior of Ti in silicate
melts.
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#6. What’s New
(1) Event Information
*Events may be cancelled or postponed.
Please check the event website for the latest information.
2nd Edition of World Congress on Geology & Earth Science
Date: July 9-11, 2020
Venue: IP CITY HOTEL Osaka, Osaka
https://geology-earthscience.com/
(2) Career Opportunity
[Computational Science and Engineering Group,
Center for Mathematical Science and Advanced Technology (MAT),
Research Institute for Value-AddedInformation Generation (VAiG)]
Recruitment of a Postdoctoral Researcher
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/work_with_us/jobs/details/mat20200415.html
Faculty Positions in Geoscience and Environmental Engineering School
of Southwest Jiatong Univeristy, Chengdu, China
https://gsee.swjtu.edu.cn/uploadFiles/201910/24/_B_201910241240488794.pdf
Job Announcement for a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor
(Tenure-track system) at JAXA
https://global.jaxa.jp/about/employ/pdf/edu_2020_01_e.pdf
Associate Professor Position at the Department of Civil and Earth
Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
Kyoto University
http://tansa.kumst.kyoto-u.ac.jp/AssocProfOpportunity200313_E.pdf
FY2020 Climate Variability Prediction and Application Research Group,
Application Laboratory (APL),
Research Institute for Value-Added-Information Generation (VAiG)
Recruitment of Scientist or Technical Scientist (DKS-04)
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/work_with_us/jobs/details/apl20200511.html
“Open Position: Professor” Professor in the Division of Atmospheric
Environmental Studies, Department of Environmental Research,
Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University
http://www.ki-net.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/koubo_prof_en.pdf
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Japan Geoscience Union (https://www.jpgu.org/)
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