International Symposium:
New Visions in Laser-Beam Interactions
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity of extending a cordial welcome to all of you.
This year is the 50th anniversary of our university and we are highly honored that our university has been chosen as the site for the International Symposium "New Visions in Laser-Beam Interactions" on this occasion.
I heard that this is the first international symposium in this new field and I heard also that over 40 of you are from various countries all over the world. I understand that almost all Big Shots in this field are here in this room now so that this symposium must be actively interactive, and I feel a lot of beams hitting me.
I am very much proud of our Laboratory of High Energy Physics headed by Professor Hirose, which has been producing remarkable achievements in this field in cooperation with CERN, DESY, BNL and so on.
The oldest textbook of history tells us that the beginning of the universe was the chaos. "What was the beginning of the universe?" or "What is the ultimate structure of materials?" is our most interesting question.
I hope a number of outstanding contributions will be given during this symposium. But I do not expect that the beginning of the universe and the ultimate structure of materials will be clarified right now, because if this would be the case, most of you would lose your job. Joking aside, I do expect that this new research field will contribute not only to the development of physics itself but also to the application to technology, medical science and so on.
Our university moved to this campus 8 years ago. I would like to say with confidence that our campus is one of the most beautiful university campus in Japan now. I wish the symposium every success and I hope you will enjoy not only the symposium itself but also our beautiful campus.
Thank you very much.
［1999年10月12日 都立大学国際交流会館］