WRI-1 to WRI-9

 

The 9th International Symposium on Water Rock Interaction(WRI9) was held in Taupo, New Zealand from March 27 to April 3 of this year, with Brian Robinson as the Secretary-General, who is shown in the above photo sandwitched between us.

The photo below was taken just before the opening ceremony of the symposium starts. I had never seen Brian in so nicely dressed up as in this photo. I felt the heavy responsibility and burden he carried on his shoulders for the Symposium.

 


We stayed in Taupo during the 5 days conference periods, mostly participating in the spouse's program. Then, we rent a car, together with Yotaro and Takako Seki, our close friends, and drove through Rotorua, the east coast, and the Coromandel Peninsula, to Auckland, spending 4 delightful days.

Although the weather was not always favorite for us, we enjoyed the various events held for the WRI9 participants during the conference and learned much of the history and natural wonders of New Zealand during our driving tour.

The following pages show the peoples we met ,the historic sites visited, and the landscapes and flowers that impressed us during the trip.

 

WRI-9 Participants

WRI-9 is supported by the Water-Rock Interaction Working Group, one of the Working Groups of the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry (IAGC). The Chairman of the Working Group is Dr. Mike Edmunds, shown here with his wife Kathleen.

The WRI Working Group is run by the Executive Committee composed of the Secretaries-General of the past WRI-symposia

Past Secretaries-General

Tom Paces of the Czech Geological Survey(left) organized the WRI-1 in Praha in 1974. He is the father of WRI symposium and also designed the logo of the symposium. Together with him is Lucas Fanfani, University of Cagliani, who is going to organize WRI-10 in Sardegna in 2001 as the Secretary-General. I trust that the WRI-10 will be another exciting symposium with Italian passion, fantasy and humanity.

WRI-2 and WRI-3 were held, respectively, in Strasbourg in 1977 by Yve Tardy and in Edmonton in 1980 by Brian Hitchon. Their photos are not available this time as both were not able to attend the meeting.

WRI-4 was organized in 1983 in Misasa, Japan. I (Hitoshi Sakai) was appointed to be the Secretary-General. Since then, I have been in close association with WRI and for the best of all, I have met many wonderful scientists and their wives.

Halldor Armannsson (left in above photo) of the National Energy Authority , Island organized WRI-5 in Reykjavik in 1986. Unfortunately I could not participate it.

WRI-6 was organized by Mike Edmunds in 1989 in Malvern ,England. Yousif Kharaka, USGS, the 3rd from the right of this photo was the Secretary-General of WRI-7 which was held in Park City, Utah, in 1992. I was the Chairman of WRI that time and had pleasure to meet him and his colleagues in USGS at Menlo Park to discuss about bringing WRI-7 to US.

The happily smiling lady to his left is Ellen Duckworth, the wife of Brian Robinson, to whom all of us owes much of the wonderful time in Taupo.

Pamela Kharaka with Brian, our Secretary-General of WRI-9 cheers for what ? She is as helpful as Yousif in every WRI meeting and makes people happy. Brian in this photo looks relaxed but still have 3 more days to go to close the Symposium.

If I were asked which WRI was most memorable for me , I would not hesitate to name WRI-8 (1995) in Vladivostok, whose Secretary-General was Oleg Chudaev, Russian Academy of Geological Sciences.

I met Oleg in Tokyo in 1987 or so, when he spent about 6 months in Japan as an exchange visitor of the Japan Soc. Promotion of Sciences. He impressed me very deeply by his open -minded talking and passion for science and friendship, which is quite different from Soviet scientists I had ever met by that time. I felt that Soviet was changing and as the Chairman of WRI, I thought that Oleg would be able to organize WRI-8 in Vladivostok and that it would be a big drive to the change.

My thought was supported by most of the Executive members. Mike Edmunds and Yousif Kharaka were especially enthusiastic. We worked hard for about 5 years to advance the idea and finally have it in Vladivostok in 1995. During this preparation period, Soviet change much faster than anyone thought, being converted to Russia and many dramatic things happened, which will be told someday by some of us.