On February 9th, 2018, Consul General Karen Kelly, Consul Colin Fishwick (Political and Economic Affairs) and a delegation from American Consulate General Osaka-Kobe, Japan visited NAIST.

At the courtesy visit, Vice President / Executive Director Kiyomi Kakiuchi, Professor Shun Hirota (Advisor to the President for International Affairs) and International Activities Coordinator Junko Iwatsuki (Division for Global Education) welcomed the delegation, exchanging information and opinions regarding NAIST's education and research. The merging in April of our three current graduate schools into the "Graduate School of Science and Technology" was also introduced by Vice President Kakiuchi.

The delegation then visited the Supramolecular Science Laboratory (Prof. Hirota) and experienced a thorough campus tour to gain a full understanding of NAIST's innovative education and research activities and to see the state-of-art facilities.

Since 2013, NAIST has held an annual information session on U.S. visas for our faculty, administrative staff, and students to facilitate their travels hosted by American Consulate General Osaka-Kobe. Among our six current academic exchange partners in the U.S., NAIST established the "NAIST-UC DAVIS International Collaborative Laboratory for Medical & Bio Informatics" in March, 2016 at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), one of our closest partner schools in the U.S. NAIST also sends faculty and staff members to UC Davis every year in the Faculty and Staff Development Programs. The ongoing exchanges that we have with U.S. institutions further enhances NAIST's relationships with the U.S. academic community and this visit strengthened ties and opened up new possibilities on both sides.