Akvaplan-niva collaboration with Japan

Professor Shosaku Kashiwada from Eastern Ocean University (Toyo University) in Tokyo Japan, is an aquatic ecotoxicologist, primarily working on heavy metals and nanoparticles. In March Professor Kashiwade will speak at the Norwegian Environmental Toxicology Symposium (NETS) conference at Svalbard in a session led by Claudia Halsband from Akvaplan-niva. His participation is the result of a long time collaboration with Akvaplan-niva. 

Last year Lionel Camus from Akvaplan-niva visited Professor Shosaku Kashiwada in Tokyo. Professor Kashiwada had previously visited Akvaplan-niva and invited Camus to Japan and the Toyo University to continue the discussion for joint collaboration. During his stay Camus was also a guest speakers at a conference organized by the Japanese Society of Ecotoxicologists. 

Professor Kashiwada invited Camus on a field trip to a copper mine where he has ongoing studies of the impact of 400 year of copper mine exploitation on the river and lake ecosystems. Along with the mine Camus was also introduced to technologies built to trap the heavy metals in sediment in order to reduce river and drinking water contamination. 

There was also workshop at Toyo University with the team of the faculty of Environmental Science to identify common research interests and source of funding to develop joint project proposals with Akvaplan-niva and Toyo University. A memorandum of understanding was signed between Akvaplan-niva and Toyo University in order to formalize the collaboration.