By Fidelma Giulia Di Lemma.
The Atomic Energy Society Japan (AESJ) organizes biannual meetings, each of them attracting more than 800 oral and poster contributions on a broad range of nuclear topics. The conference engages nuclear experts from all Japan, including academia, research centers, industries and governmental agencies, and addresses not only the technological challenges in the nuclear science but also societal issues, such as nuclear communication, engagement and balanced workforce. The AESJ conference is thus an important event to get to know the current status of nuclear science and technology in Japan.
AESJ is the mother society of YGN-J. They sponsor and support financially their activities. During the conference they dedicated a poster session to promote the work of students, a lecture on the YGN activities, and hosted an executive meeting. Through this involvement, AESJ attracts to their meeting a wide audience of young professionals and thus represents a good platform to promote YGN events. During the conference, IYNC was promoted with flyers focusing on the network activities and with a comprehensive report prepared by YGN-J on the IYNC2016 conference.
Participating in these meetings provided me with the opportunity to discuss the challenges posed by the Fukushima accident to scientific research, to promote my own research work, and to engage with the YGN in Japan.
As traditions dictates, dinners are devoted to networking, and this has meant for me to join also the YGN-J dinner. They have welcomed me to their network, and I have become a usual presence in this tradition. This dinner is an important occasion, not only get to know peers in the YGN, but also to update the YGN-J members on the activities of the past 6 months and finally to attract new members by this informal activity.
Photos: Left YGN-J president (Jun Nishiyama) welcoming the YGN members. Right YGN-J members enjoying Kyushu traditional delicacies. Photo provided by Kazumasa Shimada.
