Date: May 28, 2018 15:00-19:00
Venue: Tetsumon Memorial Hall@14F, Experimental Research Building, School of Medicine, Hongo Campus

On Monday, May 28, 2018, more than 150 participants gathered for the Opening ceremony of the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN).

The Opening Ceremony celebrated the official start of the IRCN, one of two newly appointed World Premier International Research Initiatives (WPI) by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) division of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Technology and Culture (MEXT). Hosted on The University of Tokyo Hongo campus and spanning a global network including Harvard University, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Max-Planck-Florida Institute, the IRCN is the newest center in the University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Studies, a consortium for university research system reform.

Following opening remarks by IRCN Director Takao Hensch, congratulatory addresses were offered by the President of The University of Tokyo, Makoto Gonokami, Deputy Director General of the Research Promotion Bureau of MEXT, Yoshiyuki Chihara, WPI Program Director, Akira Ukawa and the Director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU), Hitoshi Murayama. Dr. Steve Chien from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, then presented a Special Talk on the growing role of artificial intelligence in space exploration and the search for life beyond earth”.

Under the visionary leadership of Director Hensch, IRCN is now poised to create and advance the nascent field of neurointelligence, a fusion of the neuroscience of brain development, artificial intelligence, social sciences and the clinical study and treatment of mental illness. The confluence of these fields is expected to serve as a magnet for international researchers and scholars to conduct innovative research that will advance global society and support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

 

(At Unveiling Ceremony: Dean, School of Science Hiroyuki Takeda,  Dean, Graduate School of Medicine & Faculty of Medicine Kohei Miyazono,  JSPS WPI Program Director Akira Ukawa,  Deputy Director General of the Research Promotion Bureau, MEXT Japan Yoshiyuki Chihara,  President of the University of Tokyo Makoto Gonokami,  Director of IRCN Takao Hensch (from the left))