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The Role of Graduate School of Environmental Studies,Tohoku University - From Regional to Global -It's high time that we create awareness among the public about environmental problems, which are of utmost important in the 21st century, and work towards the solution to such problems. The birth of the new century was confronted with difficult problems such as environmental pollution, depletion of resource, accumulation of waste, and global warming though everyone had dreamt of the 21st century that overflowed with hope. In order to build a sustainable society, which could solve environmental problems and harmonize the global environment, we need to focus on concentrating human resources. To straighten out that problem and to construct a sustainable society that could harmonize the global environment, we should concentrate our energy and devote ourselves. And also, the time is ripe for researchers from various academic disciplines such as arts, science, engineering and medicine to unite and work together for the betterment of humanity. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, was established based on the above viewpoint in the spring of 2003. Faculty members from engineering, science, social science, and cultural science gathered to work on a common research and education target "Development of the Environmental Studies". This demands an extra effort to work beyond the existing boundaries of their own disciplines. We are so convinced that the new stage will be set up to integrate the arts and humanities and science and technology in the not-so-distant future. One of the most important missions of the University is to supply men and women of excellent talents to the society. The student whom we try to bring up would have expertise in basic science, possess wide knowledge and global environment perspective. And also, the members of the society are offered with a state-of-the-art education through devised practical education programs. Environmental problems of various scales have been generated even in areas far from regions familiar to us. We have been assigned with the role to address the global environmental problems through searching for solutions to regional environmental problems. We presume that our motto should be "Think Globally, Act Locally", and we should indulge ourselves in research and education while promoting regional alliances and international cooperation more than ever before. Dean, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University |
