Our committee has been asked to review the research activities in the Institute
for Study of the Earth's Interior (ISEI), Okayama University, Misasa Japan.
We visited ISEI between January 12 and January 15, 2000, interviewed all
its staff members and visited their laboratories. The ISEI was established
in 1985 and reorganized in 1995. Prior to the reorganization, an oversea
visiting committee of N. Shimizu, R.N. Clayton, C.T. Prewitt (C. Allegre
by correspondence) had reviewed ISEI in 1994. Our review therefore will
focus on its activity in the last five years.
Our very positive impression of the Institute is supported by the active
and high-level research activities as well as array of most modern analytical
and experimental facilities calibrated and operated in good conditions.
Most impressive was enthusiasm by many young scientists (including post-docs)
who were very eager to show their research. Two of us (Mizutani and Takahashi)
have previous connections to ISEI, the other three (Hemley, Ishida and
Javoy) visited it for the first time. We all are fully convinced that ISEI
now has developed into a world class institute dedicated to basic research
in solid earth sciences.
During the last five years, one of the most outstanding new development
at ISEI was the establishment of a very extensive solid-state mass-spectrometry
lab (the PML lab). Multi-isotope analysis can be done at PML by array of
TIMS using as much as seven isotope systems. A striking technical development
at PML is the combined beam analysis system using SEM, EPMA and two SIMS,
which yield all sorts of chemical information from a tiny specimen. The
PML clearly now is one of the most well equipped and technically advanced
solid-state geochemistry labs in the world. Because Japan was historically
weak in this field, the PML is expected to serve as a leading school in
solid-state geochemistry.
ISEI was historically strong and internationally well recognized by
very high-pressure experiments. This group is still very active in developing
new pressure generation techniques, setting up a diamond-anvil and a NMR
labs and working jointly at the synchrotron facility SPring-8. Subsolidus
phase relations of the mantle to explain seismic discontinuities and melting
behavior of mantle rocks to explain the diversity of magmas were the two
important topics in ISEI. These are still in progress. In addition, there
have been significant recent successes in measuring high-pressure physical
properties of mantle minerals, such as thermal diffusivity, electrical
conductivity, and viscosity.
A new research branch (Basic Volcanology) was established at the time
of reorganization in 1995. This branch was aimed to link the two strong
branches in ISEI (very high-pressure experiments and the PML) by introducing
insights of magmatology (volcanology, igneous petrology, and silicate melt
science). The role of this branch, however, is now less visible than that
of the other two branches. This may be due to the fact that I. Kushiro
who established this branch has retired and that K. Ozawa is moving to
Tokyo. This branch clearly needs personnel who can play key roles to interact
between the two strong groups.
The levels of science in ISEI on the whole are very high. It is well
demonstrated by their publication list. During the two-day interview, we
were very impressed by the excellent ability of all ISEI staffs (and post-docs)
in English. As in other institutes, communication and collaboration between
scientists in different research groups could be improved. We recommend
the development of a collaborative program of focused research targets
that will be attacked by close association of ISEI scientists, to complement
its many diverse individual research targets. This may help to increase
its visibility in the global earth science community.
To conclude, ISEI stands as one of the leading research institute in
the world, having strong emphasis in very high-pressure experiment and
solid-state geochemistry. Its success in having acquired a high-quality
staff and an enormous amount of research equipment as well as a brand new
building are clearly due to immense efforts of the past directors; Y. Matsui,
S. Akimoto and I. Kushiro. Having a new director M. Kono (a well-known
specialist of theoretical and experimental geomagnetism), ISEI will have
a chance to expand their communication to the geodynamics community and
solve some fundamental problems in solid earth sciences. In order for further
success of ISEI, we recommend (1) to employ high-level engineers who will
support technical innovations, (2) to encourage more graduate students
to come, and (3) to have research targets representing the institute. There
may be some room to reconsider grouping of the scientists and the arrangement
of their office and laboratories in order to facilitate more communication
and collaboration.
February 29, 2000
Visiting Committee Members
Russell Hemley
Mizuho Ishida
Mark Javoy
Hitoshi Mizutani
Eiichi Takahashi (Chair)