The President of the Osaka University Bangkok Center, Prof. Miyamoto gave the opening address.
Next, Prof. Yoshitake Nishimune, Director of RCC warmly welcomed everyone (below left), followed by Mr. Jun Yamada, representative of the Japanese Embassy in Thailand, who emphasized the significance of our new research collaboration with Thailand (below right).
The first Osaka University Symposium in Thailand
"Let us protect ourselves from infectious diseases"
At
Osaka University, we strive to make the community aware of our academic and research pursuits by organizing public lectures. In commemoration of the recent establishment of the "
Research Collaboration Center on Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases (RCC-ERI)", which is a collaboration between the Thai governments Department of Medical Sciences and various departments of
Osaka University, we organized a public symposium for the Japanese resident community in
Bangkok for the first time in
Thailand.
The first lecture was given by Prof.Yoshiyuki Nagai, President of the
Center of Research Network for Infectious Diseases, under the title "Infectious Diseases: Be Prepared". He explained about various infectious diseases in general and SARS in particular, and touched on the main research interests for the near future.
Assistant Director, International Relations of Osaka University, Prof. Kiichiro Tsuji, in his closing address expressed our determination to make the Japan Thai research collaboration a success, and appealed for the support of the resident Japanese community in Thailand in this endeavour.
We hereby express our gratitude to the more than hundred people who attended this symposium, without whom our efforts would have been to no avail.
Prof. Yoshinobu Okuno, Deputy Director of the Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health, talked about "The ever-increasing threat of a novel influenza". He explained about the various existing types of influenza, and the reality behind the threat of a novel influenza.
Later on, we had a Q&A forum with Prof. Nagai, Prof. Okuno, and four researchers from RIMD - Prof. Horii, Prof. Honda, Prof. Ikuta, and Prof. Oishi - on stage. There were many questions from people from different backgrounds - from company workers to housewives making way for a very productive exchange of information. The interest of the general community in our research made us realize the added importance of making disease related information available to the public.
