Exploring regional potential at Ichinoseki Science Cafe

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The second Ichinoseki Science Cafe for the 2016 fiscal year was held on Sept 3, in a Japanese-style tatami mat room in the Kawasaki Civic Center, some 20 minutes east of central Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture.

Dr Masakazu Yoshioka, Visiting Professor at Tohoku University and Iwate University and Professor Emeritus at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), chatted at the casual gathering of about 25 residents which included elementary and junior high school students.

The session was titled “The ILC and Regional Involvement,” and Dr Yoshioka spoke about the International Linear Collider (ILC) – a next-generation particle accelerator which may be built in the Kitakami Highlands in the south of Iwate Prefecture – about its purpose and using it as an opportunity to develop the region.

Dr Yoshioka said: “highly skilled personnel from around the world would come, industries would be strengthened and new markets created. The region would change dramatically.”

As an example of regional development, he talked about the use of renewable energy to partly power the ILC, and the use of thermal energy that would be generated, saying: “the forestry industry would be boosted by the use of biomass to generate power, and by the use of timber in new facilities. Thermal energy generated would be used in greenhouses for agriculture. Business in primary industries would be created.”

Dr Yoshioka also spoke about making the region a leader and model in Japan for self-driving vehicles, talking about lower costs of transportation, improved logistic networks, and assisting the elderly who lose their ability to drive themselves around. He then finished the session by urging participants to come up with ideas that no one else will.

The Ichinoseki Science Cafes are held for residents to chat with researchers about science and elementary particle physics, and further momentum in bringing the ILC to fruition. This article is a translation of an article in the September 4 edition of the Iwate Nichinichi newspaper.

For more information about the ILC and the latest ILC news in English, see the “Iwate and the ILC” website.