Hisashi Kobayashi's Blog
Sherman Fairchild University Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Princeton University

Message from the President of Friends of Todai, Inc. (FOTI)

Dear my friends who have been visiting my Blog page:

My apology that I have not posted any message for a long time, primarily because I have been quite busy in setting up the website and issuing the bimonthly Newsletter (mail magazine) of Friends of Todai, Inc. (FOTI) since I was appointed in April 2011 to the president of this New York based non-profit organization associated with Todai (which is an abbreviation of “Tokyo Daigaku”, or Tokyo University), my undergraduate alma mater.

The primary goal of FOTI is to help Tokyo University (or the University of Tokyo) become more globalized or internationalized. We are trying to accomplish this goal by supporting worthy joint research programs between Todai and U.S. institutions such as the IPMU (Institute of Physics and Mathematics for the Universe) program and the TYI (Todai-Yale Initiative) program on Japan study.

If you are involved in any worthy joint research project between Todai and a U.S. institution, please contact us. The information concerning our research grant program can be found at the Grant Application Procedure of our website.

We also give scholarships to outstanding students, both undergraduate and graduate, who participate in worthy summer programs or internships. In the summer of 2011, we awarded “FOTI International Leadership Award” to three UC Berkley students and one Yale student who attended the GSP (Global Summer Program) courses at the Todai Campus, four Todai students who attended the GSP courses offered by U.C. Berkeley, and two Todai students who attended the English Language Institute (ELI). We also awarded three MIT students who conducted research at Todai through the arrangement of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program.

If you are a U.S. student who plans to participate in a summer program or to conduct research as an intern at Todai in the summer of 2012, or a Japanese student at Todai or other university in Japan, associated with Todai in some fashion, and plan to attend a reputable summer program in a U.S. university in the summer of 2012, please visit the Grants and Awards page of our website, and contact us.

You can find other activities of FOTI by reading the back issues (July, September and November 2011) of the Newsletter posted in the News section of our Home page. Please subscribe to our newsletter by filling the “Subscribe to the FOTI Newsletter,” and let your friends know FOTI and our Newsletter. We are interested in hearing any suggestion you might have concerning the activities and promotion of FOTI.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that we need financial support from our alumni and friends of Todai. Please read “We need your support: Message from the President,” in the November 2011 issue of the Newsletter.

Best regards,

Hisashi Kobayashi

President, Friends of Todai, Inc.

331 West 57th Street, #164
New York NY 100190-3101
Website: www.friendsoftodai.org

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