1. Introduction
Our committee has been asked to review the research activities in the Institute
for Study of the Earth's Interior (ISEI), Okayama University, Misasa, Japan.
We visited ISEI between January 12 and 15, 2000 for this review. The committee
was assembled on the afternoon of January 12, and was informed of the basic
facts about ISEI from its director. On January 13, we interviewed all its
staff members and visited their laboratories. Additional visit to laboratories
were conducted on January 14, but most of that day was used in discussing
the contents of the report.
The ISEI was established in 1985 and reorganized in 1995. Prior to
the reorganization, a visiting committee composed of N. Shimizu, R.N. Clayton,
C.T. Prewitt (C. Allegre by correspondence) had reviewed ISEI in 1994.
Our review therefore will focus on its activity in the last five years.
Overall, we were quite impressed by the high level activities at ISEI,
although there are some points in which we would like to see changes or
improvements. This report was assembled mostly through e-mail discussions
after the Committee members returned to their home institutions. ISEI is
formally composed of three research divisions, (1) Basic Volcanology, (2)
Planetary Material Sciences, and (3) Study of the Earth's Evolution. In
this review, however, we chose to group the scientists according to what
they actually do, because this makes the review much clearer. We hope that
our review and recommendations are useful to the ISEI for further advancement
of its activities.