Entrance of AAAS 2013 at Hynes Convention Center in Boston
Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the WPI institutes including Kavli IPMU participated in the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2013 on February 14 - 18 in Boston, USA.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the biggest international non-profit organization for the advancement of science in the world. In addition to organizing membership and activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many other scientific books and reports. The Annual Meeting of the AAAS has been a widely recognized scientific event, with various networking opportunities and global media coverage. In the "Family Science Days", general public including kids and school students enjoy a variety of science events.
The Family Science Days
The six WPI institutes and MEXT hosted the WPI booth as part of the Japan pavilion organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Over the course of the three-day exhibition during the meeting, a diverse audience of more than 1,100 --- ranging from scientists to administrators to lawmakers --- visited the Japan pavilion. In the booth, the staff from the WPI institutes introduced the collaborative researches bridging various research fields in an international environment of the institutes. The WPI program, RIKEN, and the University of Tsukuba held a workshop on the theme : "Japan: Your next carrier destination" from 2:30 pm on February 15. In the workshop, the staff from the organizations introduced their internationally-opened environment and offered exciting career opportunities to foreign researchers.
Kavli IPMU staff communicating with the guests
Lecture by Mark Vagins, professor of Kavli IPMU
In the scientific session "Neutrinos: Nature's Smallest Surprises," Mark Vagins, Professor of Kavli IPMU, gave fascinating presentation about the experimental research on the astronomical neutrinos using beautiful slides with plenty of illustrations. An elementary school student and his father, who heard the lecture, visited also the Kavli IPMU exhibition and asked about the mystery of the universe with great interest.
The next AAAS meeting will be scheduled for February 2014 in Chicago.