Letter upon Retirement from the Editor-in-Chief

Koji Sakai

In April 2005, the JSCE Concrete Committee sent its first newsletter out into the world. We have continued to publish four issues per year since that time, and this issue is No. 17. I have served as Editor-in-Chief of the newsletter until the present, but my role in this capacity is now coming to an end. It is thanks to the dedicated work of the members of the Subcommittee on International Relations that we have been able to continuously issue the newsletter for the past four years, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation. In addition, these activities could not have been accomplished without receiving financial support through the consideration of Dr. Kyuichi Maruyama, former chairman of the Concrete Committee, and Dr. Toyoaki Miyakawa, the current chairman. I am deeply grateful for their consideration. This newsletter is sent out to approximately 3,800 concrete experts around the world, and I would like to thank our readers for their support. In addition, I would like to express special appreciation to those readers who have contributed articles to the newsletter: Professor Narayan Swamy of the U.K., Professor Nemy Banthia of Canada, and Professor Michael N. Fardis of Greece. Their contributions have been a great encouragement to the editors. Again, thank you.

The purpose of this newsletter is to communicate information to the world regarding the valuable activities and findings of the Concrete Committee, the arm of JSCE that is most active in wide-ranging investigation and research. The Concrete Committee holds approximately 95 meetings every year, and a total of 780 persons participate in its activities. A total of 130 and 83 publications were issued as the Concrete Library and Concrete Engineering Series, respectively. Most of these publications were issued in the Japanese language in the past, and as a result, they were rarely read outside Japan. However, at present, all publications issued as the Concrete Library are required to be in English, and we have introduced its publications in this newsletter. It is my hope that these endeavors have made a significant contribution to the development of concrete engineering around the world. The world is now experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis, but the need for worldwide infrastructure development is clearly apparent, and concrete has a very important role to play in this regard. It is important for people related to the field of concrete around the world to expand this network and cooperate with one another to make a contribution to the world, and I hope that this newsletter will serve as a platform for the development of these efforts.

This newsletter will continue to be published and to provide increasingly valuable information to many readers around the world under the leadership of the new editor-in-chief, Professor Hikaru Nakamura of Nagoya University. I would like to conclude by once more expressing my deepest gratitude to you all for your longtime support.