How was this year? Year 2006 was good for the IISEE, because 1) the IISEE could award the first Master's Degrees to the 2005-2006 course participants and 2) the new "Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Course" was created (see Newsletter No.6). We wish Year 2007 will be a better year than 2006 for you. Please vist our new Newsletter page on our website introduced in the next news, and you will find our recent group photo on the web version of the Newsletter.

We have added the link on the top page of the IISEE website for the IISEE Newsletter back numbers page. You can easily visit the back numbers page by clicking on the link of the top page of the IISEE website (https://iisee.kenken.go.jp/en). Some photographs relating to the articles have been added in this page. Please visit our back numbers page (http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/net/newsletter.htm), too.


Nobuo HURUKAWA
Director, IISEE

As one of the working commissions in CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), W114: Earthquake Engineering and Buildings was established in November 2006. The present coordinator is Dr. Taiki SAITO, BRI. This WC aims to promote communication among researchers and engineers to make a harmonized design guideline for sustainable buildings against earthquakes. The first three years activities of the WC put focus on buildings with response control devices.

CIB Web site: http://www.cibworld.nl/website/

The first CIB/W114 meeting entitled "International Workshop on Response Control and Seismic Isolation of Buildings" was held in Guangzhou, China on 27 November, 2006. The workshop invited more than forty scholars from Japan and China and exchanged information on the latest developments of seismic isolation system and applications.


Taiki SAITO
Chief Research Engineer, IISEE

Dr. Tamura, staff of IISEE, went to Romania as a JICA short-term expert during 22 October to 5 November, 2006. Mission of this dispatch is to advise Romanian counterparts in "JICA Project on the Seismic Risk Reduction for Buildings in Romania (2002-2007)" for soil tests.
http://www.utcb.ro/cnrrs_en/cnrrs.html
http://project.jica.go.jp/romania/7241011E0/english/index.html


Masahito TAMURA
Chief Research Engineer, IISEE

A call for papers has been issued for the International Symposium on Seismic Risk Reduction to be held in Bucharest, Romania, April 26-27, 2007. The symposium will gather specialists from research, education, and industry. The first day will be devoted to the presentation of the results of the technical cooperation project (now in its fifth year) between Romania National Center for Seismic Risk Reduction and the Japan International Cooperation Agency entitled Seismic Risk Reduction for Buildings and Structures. The second day will have presentations from contributors. On both days, keynote lectures will be given by leading international specialists. Abstracts are encouraged on all issues related to seismic risk, such as ground motion, ground conditions, seismic evaluation, seismic rehabilitation, and education. Submissions not exceeding one page must be e-mailed to issrr2007@utcb.ro by January 15, 2007. For more information, visit http://cnrrs.utcb.ro//issrr2007/issrr2007.html.


Alexandru Aldea
1999-2000 E-course participant, Romania