JR EAST PROFESSORSHIP
- Professor Ali Jadbabaie Named JR East Professor of Engineering Systems.
See Prof. Jadbabaie's website for more information.
- Celebrating 25 years of Partnership between MIT and East Japan Railway Company.
March 2, 2017
See the companion article on MIT News!
All photos by David Sella, Project Audio Visual Specialist (MIT)
On March 2, 2017 representatives from MIT and East Japan Railway Company celebrated 25 years of collaboration between an elite research university and a world-renowned railway operating company. The event honored Joseph Sussman, JR East Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS), for his 25 years of service as the inaugural JR East Professor and for his commitment to building a positive, constructive, and lasting relationship between the two organizations. Over the past 25 years, Professor Sussman has led research programs in collaboration with JR East's Research & Development Center and mentored many professionals from JR East as visiting scholars and graduate students in various programs at MIT. The knowledge and personnel flow between the two organizations have been bi-direction, with students from MIT participating in internships at JR East.
In his speech at the anniversary celebration, Professor Sussman noted, "the greatest honor in my professional career has been to serve as the first JR East Professor and [to hold that position] for 25 years of my career. I served, before my retirement, as an MIT professor for 50 years, so exactly half of my stay on the faculty was as JR East Professor. It's something in which I take terrific pride.
Masaki Ogata, Vice Chairman of East Japan Railway Company, gave an overview of the partnership and thanked Professor Sussman for his work with JR East: "We deeply appreciate JR East Professor Sussman. Thank you for your generous longtime support to keep and strengthen this great relationship between both organizations."
In addition to honoring Professor Sussman's 25 years of service, the celebration also welcomed Ali Jadbabaie as he assumes the title of JR East Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Professor Jadbabaie, who also serves as the Associate Director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) thanked Professor Sussman for his support and noted: "He has been a great role model for me, and if I could be half as successful as he has been, I'd be quite happy."
Representatives from both MIT and JR East reflected fondly on the partnership's success and mentioned their hopes for the future of the JR East-MIT collaboration. Mr. Takao Nishiyama, Executive Director of the International Department (top photo) and Mr. Atsushi Yokoyama, Executive Director of Research & Development (bottom photo) also made remarks on behalf of East Japan Railway Company about the importance of collaboration as they move towards their vision of mobility innovation and growth.
The ceremony concluded with remarks from Dr. Richard Lester, Japan Steel Industry Professor of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Associate Provost of MIT in charge of international activities. He emphasized the continuing importance of international collaboration and held the MIT-JR East relationship as a model for such cooperation: "I believe... a long-term view, patience, personal relationships, and interest and commitment at every level, all of those attributes have characterized the 25 year partnership between JR East and MIT. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that this partnership has been a model of what international collaborations can deliver to their collaborators. I know I speak for MIT when I say we hope that the partnership with JR East will continue for another 25 years with the same success that it has had until now. Both of our organizations - both MIT and JR East - will be very different in 25 years, but I have no doubt whatsoever that collaborations and partnerships will be every bit as important to both of us then as they are now."
- Twentieth Anniversary Celebration of the JR East Professorship at MIT
October 13, 2011
MIT Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA
Photo gallery
MIT Press release
CEE news coverage
From left: Mr. Minoru Arai, Mr. Masaki Ogata, Prof. Claude Canizares, and Prof. Joseph Sussman
(Photo: Jameson Toole)
Mr. Masaki Ogata (left), JR East Vice-Chairman, presents to Prof. Claude Canizares (right), MIT's president for research and associate provost, a model of JR East's newest Shinkansen bullet train, the Falcon.
(Photo: Jameson Toole)
MIT President Susan Hockfield with JR East Vice-Chairman Masaki Ogata at the MIT-Japan 100th Anniversary Alumni Dinner in 2011.
- The Beginning of Industry-Academic Cooperation in Transportation: The Partnership of JR East and MIT.
1991
The JR East/MIT partnership was established in 1991 and Prof. Joseph Sussman was named as the innagural JR East Professor at MIT. The chair enabled the establishment of a long-standing and productive partnership between the East Japan Railway Company and MIT, which continues to this day.
The following article narrates the background and first five years of this partnership.
Industry/Academic Cooperation in Transportation: The Partnership of JR East and MIT
JR East President Masatake Matsuda (left), Mr. Arimori, Head of JR East Research Activities (far left), and a translator (middle) in a conversation with Prof. Sussman (right) in the early 1990's.
