New Year Greeting for 2017
Kyuichi Maruyama
President
I would like to wish you a Happy New Year. From the bottom of my heart, I hope Japan Concrete Institute (JCI) members have a wonderful new year in 2017.
Last year many unexpected occurrences and events happened overseas and in Japan. I was especially shocked at the news of “Brexit” by the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, and the result of the presidential election in the U.S.A. We cannot explain the reason why these things happened, but I feel that there are misunderstandings between experts and people in general, and many abuses by people who do not agree with what they see. Since what events will happen are unpredictable, I strongly feel that we always need to pay attention and take care of changes and circumstances that effect JCI.
In other events, the most devastating is the natural disasters. The continued Kumamoto earthquakes caused by the two active faults in April, and the typhoons in August were beyond our imagination. We have never experienced that much damage before. Support by many people and government is necessary for recovery, and JCI would like to contribute to recovery and reconstruction of these disasters as well. This is what we can do with our technical capability that we have gained for many years. We will continue to publish articles about concrete technology in our bulletins, reports from committees, and so on. I would especially like all JCI members to refer to the articles related to the concrete technologies which were newly developed for recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
By the way, I would like to congratulate our first 62 fellow members in our new membership system (Lifetime and Fellow Membership) which started as we celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2015. I hope for the support and cooperation by new fellow members for JCI and concrete related fields. Please refer to our bulletin and website regarding the application details for qualified JCI members. We are looking forward to applications from qualified JCI members.
Our new system has established a subsidy aimed at two grant programs, one for research and the other for presentations at international conferences in the concrete field. Please refer to our bulletin and website for further information about the grants. To apply for a grant program, applicant needs to be under 50 years old for a research program, and under 40 years old for a presentation at an international conference. These grants are intended to provide opportunities for young JCI members.
Our various research activities in concrete technology for crack propagation of concrete structures is especially acclaimed internationally. Last year we revised the JCI Guidelines for Control of Cracking of Mass Concrete and held several lectures. The practical Guideline for Investigation, Repair and Strengthening of Cracked Concrete Structures is a must have reference on maintenance, and we hold lectures for this information every year.
In November 2016, we reached an academic cooperation agreement with the Concrete Institute of Australia for global cooperation. The agreement was quickly completed due to the efforts of our ex-vice president, Yasuhiko Yamamoto. I expect new conceptions and developments. We are planning international activities such as the JCI-RILEM International Workshop on Control of Cracking of Mass Concrete in April, in Tokyo, and the plenary meeting of ISO/TC71 in September, in Sapporo, and the ACI-JCI joint seminar in October, in Anaheim, California, in 2017.
We have launched a new Public Relations Strategy Committee under the leadership of the former president, Professor Mihashi. Less is known regarding concrete and I hope our new PR committee will make concrete be known as attractive material and appropriately evaluated in our society.
I would like to actively take on new projects and issues in order to meet your expectations. I ask for your kind understanding and continuous support.
Kyuichi Maruyama
President
(Emeritus professor, Nagaoka University of Technology)
