Mr. Kazuo Kitahara, professor emeritus of ICU, won the FY 2022 Award for Science and Technology (Public Understanding Promotion Category) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology awards the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to individuals who have contributed to improving the level of science and technology with the aim of raising the motivation of those engaged in science and technology for research and development and promotion of public understanding related to science and technology.

Prof. Kitahara received the award in recognition of his efforts over the years to popularize and disseminate the significance of scientific and technological literacy and learning in the field of education.

Prof. Kitahara's comment upon receiving the award:

I understand that this award was in recognition primarily of the projects I was engaged in at the Science Council of Japan. One was the "Scientific and Technological Literacy for All Japanese," which I was engaged in from 2003. This was subsequently summarized in the "Imaging Science and Technology Literacy for the 21st Century " (2008) after conducting research for three years from 2005 in collaboration with some 150 researchers, educators, media, and government officials. Another is the study of "Field-specific Quality Assurance of University Education," which I was engaged in from 2008, driving forward the formulation of the reference standards that put into words the significance of the learning in various academic fields (33 fields so far). With scientific and technological literacy as a foundation for all people to discuss science and technology, and academic field-specific reference standards as a base for mutual understanding between people from diverse fields, I have been hoping that collaboration that rather leverages the differences between fields and job type would happen, thereby clearing a path for solving the diverse and complex problems of the modern era.

When I look back and think of it, the concepts of discussions cutting across fields and of mutual understanding are also the basic philosophies of ICU's Christian liberal arts. In that sense, the fact that I was working at ICU (from 1998 to 2011) has led to the award this time.

Detailed literature can be found at:
Science and Technology for All Japanese Laboratory（https://literacy.scri.co.jp/） [Japanese]