by Nolden

On 20/08/2013,the final event of this year JSPS Summer Program was held at the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo. This program offers postdoctoral,doctoral and master students from different disciplines the opportunity to meet the academic landscape and culture of Japan for two months and conduct research in the respective fields.

Before the actual event,the DAAD,the German participants invited to a luncheon meeting with a bento in one of the hotel meeting rooms.While initially exchanged general experiences outside the research sites,the fellows then reported on their research content as well as contacts with their Japanese counterparts.The 19 German participants were employed in universities and institutes throughout Japan,from Hokkaido to Kyoto,they came from different disciplines such as physics,chemistry,robotics,computer science,agriculture,health,psychology,anthropology,history,Japanese studies,etc. Many could of private travel to famous cities and regions of the country report (Tokyo,Kyoto,Hiroshima,Nara,Okinawa,and others).And personal experiences were reported: Destroyed robotic limbs,or report a participant about his Fuji climb and the admiration of the many vending machines on the top were just two of many interesting stories. Without exception,they all wanted to continue research in Japan once again at appropriate conditions,some had even already have specific deals to their Japanese hosts.At the end of the DAAD meeting were Dr. Holger Finken,director of DAAD Tokyo,distributed the certificates of completion,and it went on to the main program.

In addition to the 113 fellows from the participating countries,USA,UK,France,Germany and Canada,the representatives of the organizations that nominate the Fellows: National Science Foundation (USA),British Council,CNRS (France),the DAAD and the Canadian Embassy,​​were also the boards of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the National Graduate University (Sokendai) present.After the welcome of the participants had six scholars the opportunity to present their research and results.The report was probably the most spectacular of the British scholar,presented the measurements for infrasound propagation at just erupted with a 5 km-high ash column volcano Sakurajima in Kagoshima.For the German participants Heiko Moossen talked about his topic "Reconstruction of Holocene variability of precipitation in northwestern Iceland."For collecting soil samples,he visited with his specially traveled from Birmingham professor and the Japanese host professor several lakes in Hokkaido.

In the evening,fellows and organizers had another opportunity to share with an international buffet,to socialize or to deepen.A presentation with pictures for JSPS Summer Program 2013 (from the beginning to the end) and put appropriate background music a successful completion of the program dar.
All information for a successful application for the JSPS Summer Program 2014 will soon be available: / english / e-summer / index.html