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Recent Highlights


In January 2012, I organized a one-day workshop, together with Jun Makino, at Tokyo Institute for Technology. The title was New Mathematical Techniques for High Performance Computing. A central discussion point was: how to simulate star clusters with millions of stars on supercomputers with millions of cores?
<- In December 2011, I participated as one of the organizers in the MODEST-11 workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, Holland, a very well organized dedicated Dutch national center where every week a different scientific meeting is being held.
In October 2011, I gave a lecture, followed by a discussion, on Exploring the Use of Virtual Worlds for Interdisciplinary Research, in a mixed virtual/real event organized at Exeter University in Real Life and in the European University campus in Second Life. It was a fun way to exchange experiences in the use of virtual worlds for education and research.
<- In August 2011, I gave the Introductory talk for the MODEST-10d workshop entitled "High-Level Languages for Hugely Parallel Astrophysics Simulations: Dialogues between Computer Scientists and (Astro)physicists", that Jun Makino and I organized at the Center for Planetary Sciences at Kobe University.
In July 2011, Ataru Tanikawa, Jun Makino and I finished a preprint titled Unexpected Formation Modes of the First Hard Binary in Core Collapse. In this paper, which is accepted for publication in New Astronomy, for the first time we show how exactly the first hard binary is formed in core collapse of a collisional N-body system, such as a star cluster.
<- In June 2011, the K computer in Kobe, Japan, became the fastest supercomputer in the world, even though it was only 80% completed. I would visit the K computer center later in the summer, in Aug/Sep. As far as I know, it is the only supercomputer that has a train station named after it: K computer mae, which means "the station in front of the K computer".
Also in June, we held an interdisciplinary workshop Adventures of Categories at the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Kyoto University, for which I was a member of the scientific organizing committee.
In May 2011, I visited my collaborator Hayato Saigo at his new work place, the Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, a recently established modern research institute, located north of Kyoto, near Maibara.
<- In April 2011, I visited Jun Makino, one of my long-time collaborators, at his new home base, the Interactive Research Center of Science, a newly established interdisciplinary educational and research organization, embracing all science departments at the Tokyo Institute for Technology.
In March 2011, I found that I could easily compute my Erdős number, and found to my surprise that my Erdős number = 3 (Paul Erdős wrote a paper with Harold Shapiro, who wrote a paper with Max Tegmark, who wrote a paper with me). I used the same web site to find out that my Einstein number = 4 (Albert Einstein wrote a paper with Peter Bergmann, who wrote a paper with Joel Lebowitz, who wrote a paper with David Ruelle, who wrote a paper with me).
In February 2011, I was interviewed by William Storrar, Director of the Center for Theological Inquiry about my work in interdisciplinary studies.
<- In December 2010, I gave a talk at Kyoto University, titled A Game of Arrows: Widely Interdisciplinary Research. It was placed on the web as a set of six YouTube videos.
Also in December, I visited the Center for Planetary Sciences at Kobe University, a lively new center that was founded three years ago.
<- In November 2010, I visited Jun Tani's lab at RIKEN in Tokyo, to discuss with Jun Tani how Husserlian phenomenology may be useful in robotics.
Also in November, I visited Shigeru Taguchi at Yamagata University, in order to start a collaboration on the use of Husserlian phenomenology in various forms of interdisciplinary research.
In September 2010, I started my fall visit at the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Kyoto University, an interdisciplinary organization covering a broad range of mathematics, from pure to applied, including the history of mathematics.
<- In August 2010, I attended the MODEST-10 conference in Beijing, where I gave the summary talk at the end of the meeting. The vibrant international atmosphere at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, where part of the conference was held, was especially impressive.
In July 2010, I visited Dan Zahavi, professor in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, to continue our discussions about how to introduce Husserlian phenomenology to a wider audience.
<- In June 2010, I visited Kyoto University, and I was impressed to hear about a new project Paraiso (Portuguese for `paradise': PARallel Automated Integration Scheme Organizer) that was started there by Takayuki Muranishi, in the interdisciplinary Hakubi group. His aim is to make it much easier to write highly parellel computer code for scientific simulations.
In May 2010, I visited NAOJ, the National Astronomical Observatory Japan, in Tokyo, where I met Kimihiko Hirao, Deputy Director of the Next-Generation Supercomputer R & D Center in Kobe, Japan, and his group who were introduced to the 4D2U scientific visualization project. It was interesting to hear about the plans for the new Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, for which Hirao will be the director, and which will open this summer.

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