Month: July 2014

When I was Ph.D student, I was reading with group who are very interested in economics. We read ‘The snow ball’ by Alice Schroeder that is biography of Mr. Warren Buffet. It is actually huge book. I made a presentation about this book, so I thought I learned a lot about this book. But the truth was not. I thought “The snowball” means merely “compound interest” because we are reading the book about the investor. I did not understand what really means before I came to the U.S.

I went to ACNS (American conference on neutron scattering) at Knoxville, Tennessee this June. At the conference, the mayor of Knoxville commented on the conference started with her joke “What is the neutron scattering anyway? You are studying small things with using small things. Is that close enough?” Yes, we were a group of nerds.

American neutron scattering association chose the student award for 2014. The student (She already graduated at that time) made a presentation. I enjoyed the presentation, she was very smart. I realized that I have to face with her in the future. Oh, come on! She is not only attractive, but also she is very brilliant with great career. I didn’t think I could beat her even though I use all of my talent for physics for now.

During the presentation, she thanked a lot for her mentor collaborators. They are so strong. So, I understood what the snowball means. Talents, social support, money, knowledge, and wisdom of all have been accumulating all the time!! The science in America is accumulating like a snowball.

The snowball of Science started Europe (as for physics, it might be trinity college) and American started packed little later than Europe. Japan started little later than America. (Like one generation later than the U.S.). China has just started their snowball. But, believe me. The difference of just one generation is huge.

• The difference between Univ. of Tokyo and Harvard University

Have you ever known about PISA by OECD?

It assessed the competencies of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science (with a focus on mathematics) in 65 countries and economies.

You can find report :  http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm

In this report for Japan,

Among OECD countries, Japan is at 2009-20012 ranked second in mathematics performance and first in both reading and science.

This report is for the U.S.,

Among the 34 OECD countries, the United States performed below average in mathematics in 2012 and is ranked 27th (this is the best estimate, although the rank could be between 23 and 29 due to sampling and measurement error). Performance in reading and science are both close to the OECD average. The United States ranks 17 in reading, (range of ranks: 14 to 20) and 20 in science (range of ranks: 17 to 25).

So, the young people who are 15 years old should be doing much better than U.S. So that, my question is why the competitiveness of research and universities of the U.S. are much stronger than those of Japan? That was my question.

Of course, one reason might be English, because research papers have been published by English, and people are saying “publish or perish” based on the paper publication. Japanese have to spend a lot of time just learning English, but learning language especially professional level is not easy. Or education system, the number of student, or international student and scholar?  I thought none of them.

However, I realized that the two biggest differences,

First one is foundation for the education system, Harvard has the foundation accumulated to $ 35 billion at 2007 academic year (around 3.5 Japanese trillion yen), and the endowment for each year is $ 0.8 billion (80 billion Japanese yen). To compare, that of Univ. of Tokyo is merely $ 0.026 billion at 2013, but growing rapidly.

The second one is alumni. Since, so many alumni, so I would like to compare with drop outers. The most  famous drop outer around my age from Harvard are Bill Gate and Mark Zuckerberg. From Univ. of Tokyo, as far as I know, it might be Horie Takafumi (Horiemon). But, I believe that the influence to the world totally negligible if I compare with Bill Gate and Mark Zuckerberg. I personally respect a lot Horiemon though.

Both two the foundation and generation are accumulating.

We need to pack the snow ball as earlier as possible. As Mr. Buffet said, even for him, if he stared 10 years later, he would stand totally different place on the hill.  So, I started making donation regularly to Univ. of Tokyo, hoping for Univ. of Tokyo becoming one of the best Universities in the world. And I am waiting the appearance of genius who change world.

I am never able to say enough “thank you very much” for American people and country. I have totally enjoyed staying here for 2 years and 3 months. I learned a lot from America. I have a lot of things to write, since I will be on a vacation for two weeks, I will write here one by one.

I got a Ph.D in physics in Japan, and had worked for Univ. of Virginia for 2 years as a postdoc.  Since, I could survive two world leading physics communities, I am now totally confident with working as a physicist.  So I could have two eyes which make me see things in three dimensions. It is time to contribute physics. As a professional physicist, the cultural difference between U.S. and Japan was interesting. Also, I had worked for the University; I could also observe the part of education system in the U.S. That was also interesting. I will write them later. I also was able to write several papers and have strong collaborators here. We will keep in touch and we will keep innovate science.

Since I came here when I was 29 years old, one of the hardest parts of living here was language. But, many people have been patient for me. I want to say thank you. I need to improve my English still. Now, I am thinking that I have some hope for the future. My final goal is to read any book I want and to write creatively whatever I want.

Since I am a scientist, I am not good at thinking politics and economy, but still, I learned a lot about the democracy, capitalism and liberalism from America. And I could contemplate Japan’s future system we should develop.  To be honest, I am not sure these systems are the best for human beings, but I am sure that these are the best for now. Sometimes, I feel like American are also struggling with this system to make things right, but I believe if new system comes up somewhere in the world, that would be from the U.S.

I was able to finish running two half marathon and 1 marathon here. Thank you for those who have trained with me. Running marathon is still hard for me, but I will keep running. Running in Charlottesville was great experience. There are many gorgeous places to run. I have never gotten bored running in Charlottesville. My finish time at Marathon? Please, don’t ask me.

I was happy to come here. My favorite musician sings something like “Everything is from U.S.A.’ I listened a lot when I was a college student. Yes, the influence of American culture is strong in Japan so that I have enjoyed them here as well. I like American culture even more now.

I am going to Australia for the next job. Should I get one more eye? Yes, I will. If you have chance to come to Japan or Australia, please let me know. I would love to see you again. And I will definitely come to the U.S. for conferences, experiments, and something for fun. I am looking forward to seeing you again!!

Bye! Shinichiro Yano.