Reconnecting the Sapporo and Massachusetts Agricultural Colleges – UMass Amherst’s Visit to HU

UMA delegates welcomed by the leaderships and faculties of HU

The history of Sapporo and Massachusetts Agricultural Colleges was intertwined.  Dr. William Smith Clark, the first vice president of Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University, HU) served as the third president of Massachusetts Agricultural College (now University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMA).  Hired by the Japanese Government in the Meiji Period, Dr. Clark stayed in Sapporo for nine months to build the foundation of HU and left a significant impact there not only academically and scientifically but also philosophically.  On October 1-2, 2024, UMA dispatched a delegation led by Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research and Engagement Laura Vandenberg and accompanied by Dean Michael Fox from the College of Natural Sciences and Vice Provost for Global Affairs Kalpen Trivedi, to HU which has worked together to deepen the strategic research partnership with UMA.  The College of Natural Sciences, UMA includes the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, and that is the heart of Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Dean Fox and a Portrait of Dr. Clark

The two universities have cherished its oldest international bond of relationship over a century.  That includes academic staff mobility in recent years: joint appointments of faculties in Food, Land and Water Resources and Big Data and Cybersecurity under the umbrella of the Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), HU since 2015; exchange of early career researchers in groups of Professor Jian Ping Gong from the Faculty of Advanced Life Sciences, HU and of Professor Alfred Crosby, Head of the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, UMA, etc.  Following the latest visit to UMA by President Kiyohiro Houkin, HU in April 2023, the universities agreed to strengthen research communications, and organised the HU-UMA Virtual Symposium on Polymer Science and Engineering in January 2024.  Also, as the University of Melbourne—another strategic research partner of HU—UMA is now an oversea collaborating institution for HU’s proposal for the Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS) which is budgeted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

Clockwise from top left: President Houkin welcomed the UMA delegates / A luncheon with a former exchange student to UMA / Doctoral student’s pitch presentations / Delegates’ visit to the Advanced Chemistry Bio. Laboratory

The delegates were warmly welcomed by President Houkin, Executive Vice President (Research) Tsuyoshi Setoguchi, and Executive Vice President (International Affairs) Aya Takahashi.  The delegates paid a visit to warm existing connections with the Research Faculty of Agriculture, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, and Faculty of Engineering.  In the Field Science Center, Professor Yoichiro Hoshino proposed collaborations on agricultural products from HU’s Yoichi Orchard and UMA’s Cold Spring Orchard, which can be arranged together with hand-on trainings currently provided to students in Hokkaido and Massachusetts.  For further collaboration seeds, the delegates met academics from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Teaching Hospitals, International Institute for Zoonosis Control, Institute for Vaccine Research and Development, Center for Advanced Research of Energy and Materials, Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, and the Modern Japanese Studies Program.

UMA delegations’ visits to multiple places in Hokkaido University. Clockwise from top left: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine / International Institute for Zoonosis Control / Looking at specimens collected by Dr. Clark

The delegates were guided by Executive Vice President (Sustainability) Atsushi Yokota and Senior Academic Specialist Taena Uemura to follow the tracks of Sapporo Agricultural College: Sapporo Agricultural College Farm #2 Model Barn, Hokkaido University Museum, Hokkaido University Archives, where they could see the materials related to Dr. Clark and Dr. William Penn Brooks who was a successor of Dr. Clark and dedicated twelve years to Hokkaido.  Assistant Professor Kohtaroh Shutoh from the Hokkaido University Museum showed them lichen specimen collected by Dr. Clark 148 years ago, which certainly gave them an impression to see the specimen from the foundation period have been stored and used for today’s research.  At the end of visit, President Houkin expressed his gratitude for the lasting partnership and suggested the UMA delegates’ return to HU upon the 150^th anniversary of HU in 2026, and AVC Vandenberg talked her expectation of expanding research collaborations towards the memorable year.

Text and photos provided by the Office for International Collaborations