Foreword by Director

Toshitaka Tsuda, Professor

Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH) founded in 2004 by the reorganization of Wood Research Institute (WRI) and Radio Science Center for Space and Atmosphere (RASC) is the core research institute open to the researcher's communities in the related fields for promoting the collaborative research on sustainable humanospheric science.

WRI, founded in 1944 to promote research on wood physics, wood chemistry and wood biology, expanded its objectives through reorganization in 1991. WRI had set its objectives as global environment protection research, harmonized utilization of wood resources and the establishment of a sustainable society through extensive usage of biomaterials, and conducted both domestic and international collaborative research towards these objectives.

RASC was first founded in 1961 as the Ionospheric Research Laboratory (IRL). Going through the reorganization twice, Radio Atmospheric Science Center in 1981 and Radio Science Center for Space and Atmosphere in 2000, RASC had played a role as a leading institute for research on space and atmosphere as well as on applied radio science and technology.

Understanding that the both organizations had worked towards the sustainable development of human society, Kyoto University has merged WRI and RASC to form RISH in April 2004 to further contribute to the welfare of the future generations.

Humanosphere is composed of four vertical regions, the ground human habitat, the forest-sphere (arborsphere), the atmosphere, and space which are vital to human existence. The rapid expansion of world population and its increasing living standard have created many concerns, which may endanger these indispensable regions and become a great threat to the survival of mankind. Humanospheric science is an interdisciplinary field of study which assesses the conditions of this Humanosphere, foresees its needs, and provides with the academic and technological solutions to the critical issues. The ultimate goal is to develop technologies which contribute to sustainable human societies as well as to explore the new regions of Humanosphere possibly available for our future generations.

RISH consists of three research structures, Core Research Divisions, Center for Exploratory Research on Humanosphere, and Department of Collaborative Research Programs. RISH also sets four clearly defined research missions, which are explained in detail in another section of this website. The researchers from various fields and backgrounds; engineering, agriculture, informatics and natural sciences, collaborate to tackle those complicated problems and seek for subsistent human societies. RISH places values on collaborative research, not only among researchers within but also with outside researchers, domestic and international. We believe it is extremely important for all of us to work together toward one goal, the sustainability of human societies.