Washington State University and the University of Tokyo are entering into an academic partnership that will enhance the international prestige of both universities’ programs in the areas of agricultural and life sciences and veterinary medicine.
The historic agreement will include exchange of faculty members and postdoctoral researchers, execution of joint research, joint lectures and symposia, and exchange of academic information and publications.
The University of Tokyo is considered Asia’s premier research university and ranks among the best in the world. WSU is the only university in the United States with which the University of Tokyo is partnering in these disciplines.
The partnership goes to the heart of the WSU’s goals, WSU President V. Lane Rawlins said. “It brings world-class faculty to WSU and allows our world-class faculty to exchange ideas with colleagues and cultivate professional ties that transcend national boundaries.”
University of Tokyo representatives will be on the Pullman campus until Saturday, meeting with College of Agriculture and Home Economics and College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and administrators. A formal agreement will be signed 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, in the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education, Room 512.
Potential areas of collaboration under this agreement are several fields in which both institutions have considerable reputation and expertise, including biotechnology, food safety; biological control of insects, diseases and weeds; plant breeding and plant genomics; plant biochemistry and plant molecular science; environmental soil science; animal genomics and reproduction; investigation of prion-induced diseases such as chronic wasting disease; anesthesia and analgesia in small companion animals; diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases in small companion animals; tumor pathology and development of innovative methods for treatment of neoplastic and immunologic diseases in dogs and cats; and the role of the autonomic nervous system as a regulatory mechanism on cardiovascular function.
The agreement will bring internationally renowned scholars from both universities together to undertake ground-breaking research and provide a number of forums and collaborative academic publications. The first visiting scholar arrives next week.
“The partnership stands to benefit not only the universities involved, but will help strengthen economic ties between Japan and the state of Washington,” Rawlins said. “It will lead to research that has great potential for generating economic activity for years.”
On Saturday, the University of Tokyo delegation will be guests of President Rawlins at the Washington State – Arizona football game and will be introduced on the field at half time.
WSU alumnus Koichiro Iwasaki, president of MRL Co., Ltd., who received his master of arts in economics from WSU in 1983, played a key role in facilitating the high-level academic partnership agreement.
