Message from the Director

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Dr. Hirokuni Taguchi

Director of Research, Kochi University
Vice President, Kochi University
Director, Equipment Support Planning Office
Dr. Hirokuni Taguchi

On Occasion for the Opening of Equipment Support Planning Office Homepage

In 2014 fiscal year, a proposal for the establishment of Equipment Support Planning Office, Kochi University (ESPO KU) was selected as a two-year project to extend the life of facilities and instruments for education and research under special funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, to strategically equip new instruments for advanced research projects, to enforce the joint usage and reuse of existing instruments, and to support the running and maintenance of the instruments by technical staffs under cooperation with Science Research Center, Kochi University, with an expectation that these actions would lead the reinvigoration of the education and research activities of Kochi University. The Preparatory Committee for ESPO KU, which was established in February 2014, looked for a suitable person with extensive knowledge for instruments and with ability for public relations as a manager of ESPO KU and invited Dr. Kazuhiko Saigo (Professor Former, Kochi University of Technology, Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo), who was then appointed to the Deputy Director of ESPO KU. After Dr. Saigo took up the position of the Manager/Deputy Director of ESPO KU, he carried out a questionnaire survey for instruments in Asakura, Oko, and Monobe campuses of Kochi University, a revision of Equipment Development Plan (Master Plan), a rearrangement of the affiliation of technical staffs, a purchase of a car, so-called "Mobile Laboratory", for the movement of technical staffs and implements between the three campuses, and so on. I expect that ESPO KU contributes to the further reinvigoration of the education and research activities of Kochi University.