Foreword

At the Institute for Study of the Earth's Interior (ISEI), Okayama University, we received a grant from the Ministry of Education (Monbusho) for the purpose of external review of the institute. With this grant, we invited a Visiting Committee to review the research activities and other aspects of the institute. This is the third occation for ISEI to receive such reviews. The first one was carried out in July, 1994, when the reorganization of the institute was expected in 1995, and consisted of the four scientists from outside Japan (N. Shimizu, R.N. Clayton, C.T. Prewitt, C.J. Allegre). The second one was done by five Japanese scientists (S. Ishihara, N. Shimizu, K. Nakazawa, Y. Fukao, H. Yasuoka) in October 1996, about one and half years after the reorganization.

The present Visiting Committee consisted of the following five members:

Russel Hemley Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington Mineral physics and high pressure physics

Mizuho Ishida National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention Seismology

Marc Javoy Institut Physique de Globe de Paris, Universite de Paris VII Geochemistry and cosmochemistry

Hitoshi Mizutani Institute for Space and Astronautical Science Geophysics and planetary science

Eiichi Takahashi(Chair) Tokyo Institute of Technology Volcanology and high pressure physics

The Committee Members assembled at ISEI in Misasa on January 12, 2000. They spent three days to make interviews with ISEI scientists, to visit the laboratories, and discuss the contents of this review report.
The following is the Report submitted from the Visiting Committee, and some additional comments from Committee Members. In each case, the English is the original text and the Japanese translation was prepared by the staffs of ISEI. As there are quite a number of acronyms appearing in the report, a glossary was prepared also by ISEI.
We are very grateful to the Committee Members for spending so much energy and time to prepare this report. We will try hard to follow the Committee's recommendations and make necessary improvements as far as possible.

March 10, 2000

Masaru Kono,Director

Institute for Study of the Earth's Interior

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Russel Hemley	Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington	Mineral physics and high pressure physics
Mizuho Ishida	National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention	Seismology
Marc Javoy	Institut Physique de Globe de Paris, Universite de Paris VII	Geochemistry and cosmochemistry
Hitoshi Mizutani	Institute for Space and Astronautical Science	Geophysics and planetary science
Eiichi Takahashi(Chair)	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Volcanology and high pressure physics