Dr. Tibertius A. Prayitno, Professor of Wood Science and Technology at the Faculty of Forestry of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Indonesia visited the Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA) in Japan from 20 February - 1 March 2011. Dr. Prayitno as a recipient of a Faculty Exchange Program grant by the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources. Dr. Prayitno's program of visit included meetings with the academic staff of the host university, a visit to Shizuoka University, the Tokyo Board Industries plant and Hakone to visit the giant Japanese Sugi trees, the conduct of a seminar on Indonesian Bamboo Technology and exploring opportunities for possible collaboration between UGM and their institution.
On 21 February 2011, Dr. Prayitno made a courtesy call on TUA President, Prof. Dr. Kanju Ohsawa. He also met with Prof. Akimi Fujimoto, TUA representative to the University Consortium and TUA Consortium Coordinator, and Dr. Hiroya Ohbayashi, Associate Professor from the Laboratory of Wood Science and Technology.
Highlights of the visit
At Hakone, Prof. Jun Kobayashi, head of the TUA Laboratory of Wood Science and Technology talked about the distribution of forests in Japan, from the lowlands of Tokyo to the highlands of Hakone. Prof. Kobayashi also discussed the conservation efforts they have undertaken to preserve the giant Japanese Sugi trees.
Dr. Prayitno noted that despite the fact that these trees were growing in close proximity to commercial areas like Hakone, the Japanese people were able protect their existence, some of which are already over 300 years old.
During the visit to the Tokyo Board Industries, a particleboard plant in Tokyo, officials from the Tokyo Board discussed how they processed wood waste from Tokyo. Particleboards are wood products made of small chips of timber, lumber and wood. Dr. Prayitno was most interested in the plant's wood waste processing and was inspired by the plant's efforts to reuse wood waste. He also shared that in Yogyakarta, the collected wood waste is just thrown away or burnt for energy.
At Shizuoka University, Dr. Prayitno met with Dr. Suzuki and some of the university's graduate students. He was given an orientation of the latest technologies employed by the university in forestry research as well as recent forest product innovations.
As a requirement of this faculty exchange program, Dr. Prayitno delivered a seminar on Indonesian Bamboo Technology. Prof. Kobayashi, Dr. Ohbayashi, junior faculty and graduate students in Forestry Science attended the said seminar.
Dr. Ohbayashi discussed the graduate study in Forest Science program with Dr. Prayitno, including the procedure in case UGM students would be interested in pursuing their doctoral program in TUA.
