Could you describe to us the situation after the earthquake, at Tohoku University and more precisely in your own laboratory, regarding the recovery of research activities?

I was in my office with my colleague and in the laboratory next to my office the shake level was 6 - and the shake was so big and lasted a long time. During the shake, I felt like I was in a small boat on the Ocean. All of my books in the book shelves had falled down, and there were no space to walk. We are very lucky because we had just moved to a new building in Spring the year before, and most of our facilities are bolted to the floor. Therefore there were almost no damage to the equipments and facilities. Hence, our recovery from the earthquake was very quick. Maybe one of the quickest recovered labs. in Tohoku University. However, we are exceptional and in total, 30,000 m2 of lab. space was lost and three buildings are closed and cannot be used any more. Many labs. lost their space. Tohoku University is constructing some temporary research spaces of 10,000 m2, but this is not enough for all of them. We are expecting a 3rd emergency budget in order to recover from the disaster, but it is not confirmed yet. Tohoku University lost about \80 billion JPY of which \45 billion for buildings and \35 billion for research equipment.

What is the role of HARU and similar activities, and as an example what kind of project could be covered with the INSA foundation donation?

Students' voluntary activities helped a lot for the people’s recovery and early reconstruction as well as recovery of the university library. Some students worked for an international million crane origami project where some contribution from INSA de Lyon by Kabuto origami was also displayed together with the crane origami. Some of them were displayed at the Sendai railway station. These efforts played an important role to encourage the people that suffered the tsunami. The support by the INSA foundation donation helped a lot to promote more efficiently and effectively their activities. Tohoku University appreciates this warm support. It will take a long period to recover the area, and voluntary works also need a long period and we need to continue by transferring their experiences to the next generation/next students. Financial support by INSA Foundation is a great help for their activities.In 2012, we’ve planned an international workshop the "Innovative and Comprehensive Approach for Off Shore Tsunami Energy Dissipation and Peak Height Alleviation" with the best specialists of this domain.

What is your opinion on the future of our collaboration?

Our collaboration within ELyT lab. is one of the most important collaborations for each of the three organizations; INSA de Lyon, Ecole Centrale de Lyon and Tohoku University. We have a strong support by the Directors and Presidents as well as a very active participation by not only the members of the ELyT lab. but also many potential members of ELyT lab. who are interested in participating in the various activities such as the annual workshop and ELyT school for students. We are looking forwards to working more closely together for Research and Development to demonstrate a more visible outcome of this collaboration.

Comment collected by Amélie Fioretta in Lyon on September 6th, 2011 in collaboration with Nina Arnesen and Jean-Yves Cavaillé

More information :

- Site web ElyT Lab : http://www.elyt-lab.com/