Next month, on February 8th, the Iwate Prefecture ILC Promotion Council will hold an lecture event at Morioka Grand Hotel in Agoshita, Morioka City. This event is to celebrate President of Iwate Prefectural University Atsuto Suzuki’s Breakthrough Prize, and to generate momentum for attracting the ILC to Tohoku.

There will be lectures by President Suzuki, who is former Director-General of KEK (Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture) which is a driving force for the ILC project, along with talks by University of Tokyo ICEPP Director Sachio Komamiya and Dr. Satoru Yamashita, who is associate professor at the center as well as Chairman of the ILC Strategy Council.

The Breakthrough Prize is awarded by a group formed by American IT enterprise leaders to outstanding scientific research. The research groups including Dr. Suzuki’s were selected last year for their research achievements with elementary particles called neutrinos. There will also be a party commemorating the award on the same day as the lecture event.

The nonpartisan federation of diet members working to bring the ILC to Japan (Chairman Takeo Kawamura) will visit the United States next month in February to build a cooperative framework. From within Iwate, which contains the Kitakami mountains candidate site, President Suzuki and members of the Iwate ILC Promotion Council plan to accompany the group.

Iwate Prefecture ILC Promotion Council chairman Kunihisa Yamura expressed his hopes, saying, “The Breakthrough Prize has proved anew Japan’s ability with particle physics. This lecture event is close to the United States visit, and we want to use it as an opportunity to relate local enthusiasm for the ILC.”

The event will we held from 3 pm to 5 pm, with up to 300 participants possible, applications on a first come first served basis. Inquiries to Iwate Prefecture ILC Promotion Council, within Iwate Federation of Commerce and Industry (019-624-5880).