Message from Dean
Michio KOMAI
Dean, Graduate School of
Agricultural Science and
Faculty of Agriculture,
Tohoku University
Safe and Sustainable Food Production and Environmental Conservation for our Healthy Life
Welcome to the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Tohoku University.
The great earthquake and the Tsunami on March 11, 2011 destroyed everything at the coastal area of our Tohoku district of Japan, but our academic spirit and activities have fully recovered within several months after the disaster. Since then, we have provided assistance toward the reconstruction of damaged district, devastated by the earthquake and the following Tsunami. We are working hard on two currently active projects, the “Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences” and “Foods, Farm, and Village Project” for the reconstruction and recovery of damaged coastal area. These projects have been highly evaluated by the authorities and citizens. We still have many academic activities yet to be achieved that covers un-reconstructed area, not only from the infrastructural aspect but also social and agricultural industry reestablishment. So it is highly recommended that another valuable program must be organized in our graduate school to serve as one of our excellent academic activities.
Surprisingly many debris from Japanese coastal area reached the western part of the North America continent, which means the earth is relatively smaller in size than we imagined. This tells us that global environmental conservation is very important for the whole earth's natural ecosystem balance, requiring protection from pollution and other environmental disruptions. Needless to say, regular and constant agricultural food production is indispensable for our healthy life, therefore naturally-occurring foods must be non-polluted and safe for consumption.
To do education and research concerning these issues, academic activities in the agricultural science, like our graduate school, has been considered to be important. From such viewpoints, our graduate school has focused on these fields since its establishment. Agricultural sciences cover a wide range of academic subjects, i.e. from molecular biology to agro-ecology, and from physics to social sciences. We have three Divisions, namely “Biological Resource Sciences”, “Life Sciences”, and “Bioscience and Biotechnology for Future Bioindustries”. In many ways, the Graduate School of Agricultural Science itself acts as a mini-university. In other words, with such diversity, students have unparalleled opportunity to pursue their interests and to collaborate with staff and students with other specialties. This wide range of knowledge and integration of individual performance are important for the resolution of the ecological problems facing us this century. We must meet the needs of the times.
Tohoku University was founded in 1907 as the third Imperial University comprising of the College of Agriculture. In 1918, the College of Agriculture was ceded to Hokkaido Imperial University. Soon after the end of the World War II, under the growing social need to increase food production, the Faculty of Agriculture of Tohoku University was established in 1947 as the fifth Faculty of Agriculture in Japan, following The University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University, Kyushu University, and Kyoto University. Until today, the Faculty of Agriculture and the Graduate School of Agricultural Science follow the Tohoku University's "Research First" and "Open-Door" policies, and a number of alumni have widely and actively participated in society. Dr. Akira Endo, who won the Japan Prize in 2006 and the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2008, graduated with a Doctoral Degree from our Faculty in 1966.
Since 2004, each national university in Japan became a national university corporation by law. The initial evaluation period was scheduled for six years that ended in March, 2010. The National Institution for Academic-Degrees and University Evaluation – the governmental body responsible for evaluating higher education institutions, gave us relatively high scores in both education and research activities during the first period. The second period for the next evaluation has started from April 1st, 2010 and we aim to make further progress with our own presence in both education and research in agricultural sciences. Our aim for the highest possible quality in both our research and teaching, which manifests in good evaluation results, is our duty to both our students and to taxpaying citizens.
(Thank you for visiting our home on the web. I invite you to explore our website and read more about the professors and programs of our graduate school.)
