Data as of May 1, 2009

• 990 students from abroad out of 18,232 students as whole
• The Students come from 86 coutries and regions
• Asia 81.8%, Europe 4.1%, Africa 4.7%, Central and South America 3.3%, North America 2.3% and others

Prof. Michael Graetzel, Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, delivered a speech titled "Power from the Sun, the Advent of Mesoscopic Solar Cells" in the Plenary Session 2, Accelerating Technological Innovation for Structural Change on 23 June at Hokkaido University Sustainability Weeks 2008 Opening Symposium.

>>Program of the Opening Symposium

Speech abstract and Presentation Data are as follows;

ABSTRACT

Data as of May 1, 2008

• 864 students from abroad out of 18,262 students as whole
• The Students come from 82coutries and regions
• Asia 72%, Europe 5%, Africa 4%, Central and South America 3.6%, North America 2.2% and others

The Sustainability Weeks 2008-G8 Summit Round hosted by Hokkaido University for the three-week period from June 23 – timed to coincide with the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit – was brought to a successful conclusion with the Closing Symposium on July 11.
The event consisted of an intensive program involving 37 international symposiums, student activities, special exhibitions, etc. Including the Sustainability Marathon events from May, the total number of sessions reaches 50.

>> Link to report pages.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) and Hokkaido University (HU), Japan has concluded Inter-University Agreements in June, 2007.


Dr. Takeo HONDOH, Vice President, HU in charge of international affairs, visited ETH Zurich on 13 June, 2007 with a written Agreement signed by President SAEKI. Dr. Konrad OSTERWALDER, President of ETH Zurich signed the Agreement. Under the Agreements, the each university will dispatch and accept eight students per semester. (Photo: From Left, Dr. HONDOH, Dr. OSTERWALDER)


With common strengths in cryosphere science, academic staff of ETH and HU has collaborated in research and education for long time. The relationship has been strengthened more since 2006 when ETH and HU initiated collaboration to establish educational programs for
"International Antarctic Institute (IAI)" , a consortium for Antarctic Education. As a part of the IAI Curriculum, HU's staff conducted "Field Studies in Cryosphere" for graduate students at Switzerland with big contributions by ETH. The long-time flourishing exchanges and collaborations especially in environmental science and low temperature science finally bore a fruit as the Agreements on the inter-university level.

Understanding the mechanisms of abnormal weather, global warming and other environmental problems help us create the sustainable future. Antarctic Science receives more attentions ever due to the fact that polar regions are where the impacts of such problems have been observed first.


With a solid track record in Antarctic and cryological research and education, Hokkaido University starts a new Antarctic Science Curriculum in spring 2007. An interview to Dr. S.Sugiyama and Professor S.Aoki reveals the prominent characteristics of the quality curriculum.