UMass Amherst Provost Visited HU
On the 6thof August, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Fouad Abd-El-Khalick and Manager of Global Partnerships Eric Wirth from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMA) paid their very first visit to Hokkaido University (HU). The partnership between the two universities was initiated nearly 150years ago, by their predecessors Massachusetts Agricultural College and Sapporo Agricultural College, and since 2023, the two universities have strived to strengthen research collaborations in wider disciplines as Strategic International Partners.
The guests from UMA were warmly welcomed by Executive Vice President (International)Aya Takahashi. Tracing historic remembrances of the two Agricultural Colleges, they toured around busts of Dr. William S. Clark, Furukawa Memorial Hall, the University Archives, the University Museum, and recently-restored Red Brick Bldg. which is the former Hokkaido Prefectural Government Office Bldg., guided by Executive Vice President (Education) Fumihiko Yamamoto, Lecturer Takaaki Inoue and Specialist Mihoko Yamamoto from the University Archives; Assistant Professor Ippei Kitano from the University Museum; and Senior Academic Specialist Taena Uemura from the Office for International Collaborations. The UMA visitors were astonished by the presence and impact of Dr. Clark lingering on and beyond the campus. The sugar maple tree, which was planted by a former and late UMA Chancellor Randolph W. Bromery upon the commemoration of the 100thanniversary of HU, stood magnificently and reminded them of the long-term bond of friendship.
Chief Executive Vice PresidentJunji Yamaguchi hosted a luncheon and invited academics in collaborations with UMA: Professor Masaharu Yoshioka from the Faculty of Information Science and Technology; Associate Professor Takayuki Nonoyama from the Faculty of Advanced Life Science; and Professor Toshifumi Satoh from the Faculty of Engineering. Executive Vice Presidents (Research) Tsuyoshi Setoguchi and (SDGs) Atsushi Yokota had an intensive meeting with Provost Abd-El-Khalick and discussed the current progress of research collaborations under the umbrella of the Strategic International Partnership and the Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS), for which HU was selected to receive governmental funding as one of twelve universities in FY 2023. They agreed to keep recognising and investing in common strong research fields, and to jointly apply for large-scale international research grants. Eight research teams chosen by the 2025 HU-UMA Joint Research Seed Fund have already started visiting each other, and a two-way professional staff development scheme will begin in the coming autumn.
The itinerary included visits to the Faculties of Education and Engineering, Communication in Science & Technology Education & Research Program (CoSTEP), Graduate Schools of Global Food Resources, Life Science, and Biomedical Science and Engineering, and the Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education, and they sought possibilities to expand fields of collaborations.
This first visit by UMA Provost Abd-El-Khalick was concluded with dinner hosted by HU President Kiyohiro Houkin, together with the awardees of the afore-mentioned Seed Fund: Professor Toshiro Ohashi from the Faculty of Engineering; Professor Munetaka Shimizu from the Faculty of Fisheries Sciences; and Director Norihiro Naganawa from the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center. While universities now face unprecedented challenges and political pressures, both HU and UMA members toasted with positive anticipation towards the 150th anniversary of HU in 2026, and also a strong belief that two universities, whose foundations were established and cultivated by the same American scholar and educator Dr. William S. Clark, will continue to work together for another 150 years.
Text and photos provided by the Office for International Collaborations