Dr. Fujiwara Honored with the Prime Minister’s Commendation
Dr. Hiroyuki Fujiwara, Director-General of Research Center for Reinforcement of Resilient Function, received the Prime Minister’s Commendation to contributors for disaster prevention for FY2017 from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his accomplishments in the area of earthquake research promotion. He was awarded for his significant contribution to national missions such as the establishment of the Strong-motion Seismograph Network and the development of National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan.
Dr.Fujiwara (3rd from right) receives the award from Prime Minister of Japan.
This award recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of disaster risk reduction activities, such as life-saving activity or preventing the damage from spreading at the time of disaster or disseminating idea of disaster risk reduction or organizing disaster management system in times of peace.
“I keenly realized human being’s knowledge of earthquake was insufficient while the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake struck and I continued my research on earthquake risk reduction in light of the lessons learned”, Dr. Fujiwara said, “We tried to develop system for years to estimate the earthquake damage in real time and it’s actually used for disaster response activities immediately after the Kumamoto Earthquake.”
“I would like to thank those who supported the research and development so far and will continue our research for disaster risk reduction”, he said.
