School of Engineering, Tohoku University

Message from the Dean

Prof. Masaru Uchiyama At 2:46 p.m. on Friday, March 11, 2011, the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake occurred and then caused the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. Followed by tsunamis and nuclear reactor accidents, the earthquake has inflicted the indescribable scale of damage. Fortunately, no human injury has been reported at the School of Engineering, but it has received significant damage to education/research facilities and experimental laboratory buildings. The electronic information system and applied physics laboratory building (Building No.1), the materials science laboratory building, and the human and the environment laboratory building are now off limits. This is the biggest disaster since the establishment of the faculty of engineering at Tohoku Imperial University in 1919.

In consideration of the extent of the damage, Tohoku University has decided to delay the academic calendar by about one month and thus start the new semester at Monday, April 25. In addition, the graduation ceremony for FY2010 and the entrance ceremony for FY2011 will be cancelled. The class of the School of Engineering will begin on Monday, May 9. The classrooms on the Kawauchi-Kita Campus as well as the Aobayama Campus will be used.

We faculty are working together to restore the research environment. What is most important is to ensure research space. At the School of Engineering, the process will be classified into three phases: temporary evacuation, revamping and rebuilding. The restoration is expected to be finished in three to five years. The whole path will never be smooth, but without completing this process, Tohoku University will not regenerate as a research university.

This earthquake has posed many challenges to those of us engaged in engineering and technology. Needless to say, engineering exists to enrich people’s lives and build a safe and secure society. But we are now aware of the hard fact that current engineering has yet to achieve that goal. We have to humbly accept it and enhance the power of education, research and social contribution.

Tohoku University, one of the world's front runners in the engineering field, is in the midst of the earthquake disaster receiving global attention. The School of Engineering is responsible for recovering immediately and, as a university that has experienced an earthquake disaster, providing its knowledge, insight and technology for society. We would appreciate your support and cooperation for the School of Engineering that is working to overcome the earthquake and aiming for new horizons of education, research and social contribution.(April 2011)