Only half month left till the New Year, and now is the time to reflect year 2007. Again this year many disastrous earthquakes occurred in many parts of the world including Peru and Indonesia. Let's do our best next year so that the damage will decrease. Please find the attached group photo that shows you all the IISEE staff members. Dr. Koyama, chief research engineer, returned to IISEE as Dr. Hasegawa's successor after a 7-year absence. A staff and secretaries joining IISEE in this year are as follows; Ms. Isogai, Ms. Takikawa, Ms. Suzuki, Ms. Nonaka and Ms. Katayama. We sincerely appreciate your continuing support for IISEE. We wish the New Year will be the happiest and best for you.


Nobuo HURUKAWA & all IISEE staff members

Hokkaido University presents "International Graduate Program in the Natural History Sciences" (I-NHS) in which foreign students can study earth and planetary sciences in Hokkaido, Japan. There are both Master and Ph.D. courses. The official language will be English. If you are interested in this program, please visit the following sites:
http://www.hokudai.ac.jp/en/admission/admissions.html
http://www.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/grp/i-nhs/home/

If you wish to come to Japan for study, the following sites will be helpful:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/ryugaku/kokuhi/tokubetu/07032702.htm
http://www.jpss.jp/eng/index.html


Tatsuhiko HARA
Chief Research Scientist, IISEE

The Fifth Gulf Seismic Forum will be held on April 6-9, 2008 in Sana'a Yemen. The abstract submission deadline (EXTENDED) is 30 December 2007, and ex-participants in Yemen invite you to the Forum. Since I plan to attend it to introduce IISEE's activities, I really hope to meet as many as
ex-participants there. Please visit the following website on Forum:
http://www.ysoc.net/fcircular.htm


Nobuo HURUKAWA
Director, IISEE

We prepare a one-page brochure that introduces one of the IISEE Regular courses. Although we issue the IISEE brochure, this one-page brochure will be useful for several purposes. You may introduce achievement and importance of the training to your bosses and governments. Those who
cannot open the attached document, please find it in our website.
brochure: http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/net/newsletter/newsletter23/brochure.pdf


Nobuo HURUKAWA
Director, IISEE