At the annual general assembly of the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) on June 5th, 2024, I was appointed the 38th president of the JGS, succeeding former president Prof. KOSEKI Junichi and will serve in this role for two years until June 2026. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported me. I will do my best to contribute to the three objectives of the JGS such as contributing to the developments of academic research and practical technologies, improving the engineers’ attributes, and contributing to the general society. Specifically, I will focus on the following activities.
1) Promotion of academic and technological advances aimed at geotechnical digital twins
In the field of geotechnical engineering, data-driven research using machine learning and other methods is becoming popular, but in order to make progress, it is necessary to accumulate and open data obtained from experiments on geomaterials and on-site observations. If on-site observation data could be made open in addition to the geotechnical information databases and geo-hazard databases, it would lead to the advancement of data-driven research and the realization of geotechnical digital twins in the future. We will promote the accumulation and openness of the geotechnical information.
2) Contribution to society through education
Various seminars hosted by the JGS, regardless of whether they are at the headquarters or branch, are valuable resources. We will make the most of these resources by taking advantage of the benefits of hybrid seminars that have become established during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will contribute to not only the society through continuing education for engineers, but also the general society by supporting geography and earth science education for high school teachers, and disaster prevention education for junior generations and the public.
3) International contribution centered on Soils and Foundations (S&F)
S&F transitioned to full open access in January 2020 and has been working to disseminate academic information to international societies. We will promote the openness of various geotechnical data published in S&F to further strengthen international contribution. In addition, as mentioned in 1), the JGS as a whole will promote the openness of geotechnical data and contribute to the accumulation of global geotechnical data at the ISSMGE as an Asian society.
In addition, the “Medium- to Long-Term Vision 2023 Review Committee” (chaired by Prof. KODAKA Takeshi, Meijo University) led by former president Prof. KOSEKI Junichi has summarized the various situations surrounding the JGS and presented the activity policy that the JGS should undertake in the future. We will decide the content after listening to the opinions of JGS members and reflect them in the concrete activity plan.
We will be carrying out the above activities with the cooperation of our board of directors, which consists of 21 members including Vice Presidents Dr. KITADA Naoko, Prof. WATABE Yoichi, and Prof. NODA Toshihiro, as well as six divisions, nine branches, and the society secretariat, so we ask for your continued support.