IISEE, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and UNESCO will hold a memorial

international symposium on June 27 (Wed.) at GRIPS in Roppongi, Tokyo, making use of the

opportunity of UNESCO's International Platform for Reducing Earthquake Disasters (IPRED)

meeting in Japan.

The detailed information will be provided soon after the program is fixed since this symposium is

also a memorial event of IISEE that was established and launched by UNESCO 50 years ago.

Hajime KUROSAWA

Head of Administration Division, IISEE

A very large (Mw 8.6) earthquake occurred on the April 11, 2012 off west coast of northern Sumatra.

We present the special page for this earthquake, where the following information together with the

links to the relevant sites is available:

1) Determination of earthquake magnitudes using duration of high-frequency energy radiation and

maximum displacement amplitudes,

2) Tsunami Simulation,

3) Aftershock Distribution and the Mainshock's Fault Plane by the MJHD Method.

Please visit http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special2/20120411sumatra.htm

Tatsuhiko HARA

Chief Research Scientist, IISEE

Professor of Hokkaido University, Dr. Midorikawa who contributed to IISEE for a long period and

played a role as Director of IISEE during 1999 -2001, received an honorable paper award of the

Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ). We celebrate from the bottom of our heart.

The awarded paper's title is "Series of Research on the Development and Verification of Seismic

Response Reduction Mechanism and System for improvement of Steel Structure's Safety and

Functionality".

The details will be announced in the near future at

http://www.aij.or.jp/eng/prizes/prize/prize11.html

Shoichi ANDO

Director, IISEE

Chief Executive and Vice Chief Executive of the Building Research Institute (BRI) changed.

Dr. Yuzo Sakamoto joined BRI as the new Chief Executive after Dr. Shuzo Murakami, ex-Chief

Executive, and Dr. Isao Nishiyama is appointed as the new Vice Chief Executive after Dr. Hiroshi Ito.

In IISEE, Senior Research Engineers, Mr. Ishihara and Mr. Mukai moved to other Department of

BRI and Mr. Inukai newly joined IISEE as a Chief Research Engineer.

We welcome his participation in the IISEE.

Hajime KUROSAWA

Head of Administration Division, IISEE